Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has caused damages to the company by allowing for its games to be played illegally before release. The suit also claims that the company behind the emulator, Tropic Haze LLC, makes a profit by facilitating piracy, noting that during the leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Yuzu's Patreon saw a large increase in users. Nintendo's legal team makes a case that Tropic Haze profits from and popularizes video game piracy.

NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. pic.twitter.com/SGZVI6Cs0x

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 27, 2024

In the legal document, Nintendo refers to an emulator as, "a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games". They also assert that the Yuzu team is aware of the emulator's use in the context of piracy, and do not try to hide that aspect. In addition, Nintendo's legal team states that extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Source

 

[RAHelllord]

The exception is grey at best since its up to case by case. The DMCA count this commonkey as circumvention of you read the law. It's really written by lobbyist.

I mean, the specific law text is quoted right there, and the key itself is narrow enough to fit into it perfectly, on top of the fact that keys by themselves aren't protected intellectual property.
If keys were that valuable we'd have seen many other emulators and sites getting sued into the ground already, and multiple precedents exist that they are allowed to be shared and even bundled with software that requires them.

 

[linuxares]

You can actually sue an open source project?

Yes? They sue the LLC that is behind Yuzu. The LLC that gets all the money from the Patreon etc. That seems to be the biggest offense is that they earn money on piracy in Nintendo's eyes. Else why haven't they filed a suite against Ryujnix

I mean, the specific law text is quoted right there, and the key itself is narrow enough to fit into it perfectly, on top of the fact that keys by themselves aren't protected intellectual property.
If keys were that valuable we'd have seen many other emulators and sites getting sued into the ground already, and multiple precedents exist that they are allowed to be shared and even bundled with software that requires them.

I hope you're correct, but as I said. It's up to a court to decide in the end. They haven't cared for 15(16?) years and why would they care about it now?

Nintendo is angry because this is current gen and paid exclusive software, that's what I get most out of the text. And especially since Bunnei kind of strongly hint it's for Piracy, which cause a even more of a stink.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Actually up to a jury, assuming it gets there.

 

[linuxares]

Actually up to a jury, assuming it gets there.

Ah fuck... I forgot that dumb system

 

[Foxi4]

Nintendo has no leg to stand on in regards to “facilitation of piracy” - Yuzu only plays binaries, how the binaries are obtained is immaterial, there’s court precedent for this. They may have a claim in regards to circumvention, however it’s worth noting that the emulator is completely useless without a user-provided NAND and keys, it’s the software equivalent of a brick. If the Yuzu guys can prove that their implementation is clean room, they’re in the clear. The big worry is that Nintendo wants to bankrupt them with this rather than win outright.

Act accordingly and vote with your wallet. If you think this is egregious, punish Nintendo with your purchasing decisions. Stop giving them money.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

Ah fuck... I forgot that dumb system

It could be helpful. Or make it significantly worse

 

[Foxi4]

Yes? They sue the LLC that is behind Yuzu. The LLC that gets all the money from the Patreon etc. That seems to be the biggest offense is that they earn money on piracy in Nintendo's eyes. Else why haven't they filed a suite against Ryujnix

Worth mentioning that Bleem! was literally on store shelves. This isn’t an argument in their favour, and they know that, which is why their wording is purposefully evasive.

 

[chrisrlink]

come on you just announced Pokemon legends Z now i have no qualms pirating it wtg mofos

 

[JORGETECH]

I always thought Patreon for emulators does more damage than good, this is one of the reasons why I think so. I'm not against emulator developers getting money for their work (donations in FOSS are nothing new), but it seems like more conflicts and drama appears when Patreon enters the game.

 

[PrincessLillie]

Does Nintendo have a case here at all? Would the outcome of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. v. Bleem, LLC be relevant at all? With that suit in mind, this seems more like an intimidation tactic.
I think it's also important to remember that Yuzu is completely open-source, so even if Nintendo is successful, someone somewhere will continue developing it.

 

[linuxares]

Worth mentioning that Bleem! was literally on store shelves. This isn’t an argument in their favour, and they know that, which is why their wording is purposefully evasive.

Just saying it's one of the arguments why they're so pissy at the moment

 

[Naxster]

Nintendo is probably pissed that Palworld "copied" the Pokémon concept, got away with it and that they couldn't sue them.

 

[digipimp75]

Of course they are.

 

[MrSandstorm]

If only they'd repurpose a fraction of their legal fearmongering budget to improving the quality of first-party releases...

 

[Foxi4]

Just saying it's one of the arguments why they're so pissy at the moment

Well sure, they’re a litigious company with a long history of acting like complete assholes. I don’t know why people insist on giving them money. If you want physical, buy pre-owned. People need to rein in their low impulse control and stop paying for Bing-Bing-Yahoooo Kart 15 if they think the company is headed in the wrong direction or acting inappropriately.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

I'm just hoping they lose this... this is some draconian shit and i don't vibe with it.

Will they win though? honestly copium aside I'm not sure and that's bad...because it's a damning predicant if they do win.

 

[Lumstar]

Nintendo mistepped here. They're trying to blame Yuzu for breaking the encryptions and stuff like the Prod.keys. Yuzu does not provide them. without those keys, Yuzu can't do anything, and YOU, the user, needs to provide them.

Unfortunately, that still puts the user in violation of the DMCA. Decrypting video games for personal use is unlawful.

 

[chrisrlink]

so if nintendo sues me over what i said what would they get legallly nothing cause social security CAN NOT be used for litigation payments and i have no other income so their SOL with that (and as for selling my shit? 90%% of my consoles are hacked) so they can't legally be sold besides your dealing with a psychopath with nothing to lose because i have heart failure (possibly) to boot

 

[eyeliner]

Unfortunately, that still puts the user in violation of the DMCA. Decrypting video games for personal use is unlawful.

Then they should sue us, the users.

 

[Ryab]

View attachment 422646​

Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has caused damages to the company by allowing for its games to be played illegally before release. The suit also claims that the company behind the emulator, Tropic Haze LLC, makes a profit by facilitating piracy, noting that during the leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Yuzu's Patreon saw a large increase in users. Nintendo's legal team makes a case that Tropic Haze profits from and popularizes video game piracy.

https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1762576284817768457

In the legal document, Nintendo refers to an emulator as, "a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games". They also assert that the Yuzu team is aware of the emulator's use in the context of piracy, and do not try to hide that aspect. In addition, Nintendo's legal team states that extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Source

So basically this case comes down to 1 thing. DMCA laws very much make bypassing of copy protection illegal. The question is whether it's enough to see Yuzu as some form of circumvention technology because of the fact that you can't dump keys, games, or firmware in any shape or form legally. This isnt much of a problem for most emulators due to the lack of content encryption in many systems.