Some fallout from the early leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to be taking place. As players are loading the game into emulators and playing them unofficially on their computers, prior to the launch date, Nintendo is taking action to prevent that from happening. Lockpick and Lockpick_RCM are homebrew tools that allow users to dump unique keys from their Nintendo Switch console, which are required for numerous Switch hacking-related programs, including the Ryujinx and Yuzu Switch emulators. While Lockpick has been around for years, Nintendo has reportedly decided to go after it, by issuing a DMCA takedown to the GitHub project page, igniting concern and discussion within the community.

At the time of writing, Lockpick_RCM's repository is still active, it could be due to GitHub providing a grace period following a DMCA notice. Twitter user Simon Aarons was made aware of the takedown, after forking Lockpick, and allegedly receiving an email from GitHub, on behalf of Nintendo of America's legal team, who asserts that Lockpick is "circumvention software that infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Specifically, the reported repository provides Lockpick to users. The use of Lockpick with a modified Nintendo Switch console allows users to bypass Nintendo’s Technological Measures for video games; specifically, Lockpick bypasses the Console TPMs to permit unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch. The decrypted keys facilitate copyright infringement by permitting users to play pirated versions of Nintendo’s copyright-protected game software on systems without Nintendo’s Console TPMs or systems on which Nintendo’s Console TPMs have been disabled. Trafficking in circumvention software, such as Lockpick, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

Shortly after this, Skyline Emulator, a Switch emulator for Android devices, made the decision to shut down development, via a post on their Discord Server. Since you need the keys dumped from Lockpick in order to run Skyline, the team behind the emulator is concerned that it means Nintendo will target them for also violating their copyright.

It is with great sadness that we bring you this news. Recently, Nintendo has issued a DMCA takedown notice against Lockpick RCM which will likely come into effect on Monday, Lockpick is a core part of legally dumping keys from the Switch. They claim that it circumvents their copy protection (TPMs) and therefore violates their copyright. We find ourselves in a position where we are potentially violating their copyright by continuing to develop our project, Skyline, by dumping keys from our own Switches.

The Skyline team will be making their incomplete source code public, at the very least, and will keep the emulator's GitHub page active. Other homebrew projects are rumored to have been hit with DMCA notices as well. Ryujinx's emulator team stated that they will not be shutting down, following worries after Skyline.

 

[impeeza]

My implication was that Nintendo is not confident they can do so successfully.

Rom sites are not a good comparison, because some (probably most) exist outside of the reach of Nintendo.


Are you saying Atmosphere is illegal because it is a copy of Horizon? You can't really say that for sure, because fair use exists. Like I said before, if Atmosphere was clearly illegal, it would have been taken down by now.

Atmosphère is not illegal per se but with the DMCA laws That N garbage can argue what Atmosphère can be used to circumvent they measurements and DMCA laws allows to sue that type of software even if is legal, The great is pure Atmosphère will not avoid any protection and that's why BigN has been away from them.

That's why Atmosphère natively never will include signature avoidance nor xci direct loading.

 

[Zajumino]

Atmosphère is not illegal per se but with the DMCA laws That N garbage can argue what Atmosphère can be used to circumvent they measurements and DMCA laws allows to sue that type of software even if is legal, The great is pure Atmosphère will not avoid any protection and that's why BigN has been away from them.

That's why Atmosphère natively never will include signature avoidance nor xci direct loading.

My comment was in response to the part about clean room implementation, which has nothing to do with DRM circumvention. Either way, Atmosphere is at worst in a grey zone (for now). We can't say for sure unless it goes to court (which is probably unlikely).

Also distributing fusee is illegal, as was sept (but I haven't looked lately to see what that was replaced with).

I have never heard this before.

 

[ELY_M]

people better BOYCOTT by not buying this trash TOTK game.

I will not buy that game at all. I will not even download this game either.

 

[TomSwitch]

people better BOYCOTT by not buying this trash TOTK game.

I will not buy that game at all. I will not even download this game either.

Totk is alright if you can use cheat code. Cheat code salvage it from some very bad decision. The mechanism of controlling a part you hold is missing one axis. Did management try playing the game? It is way to hard and senseless to struggle with getting a part into an orientation that you want. The control is also too coarse. This being a central part of the game leaving it at this sad state is simply wrong.

 

[Axido]

You forgot incompetence or don't fucking care to do it properly which shows more prominently on Switch as the HW is more constraining.

Please don't assume I'd have forgotten things just because I don't spell them out. In the case of Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet I'm aware of and angry about this. But I wouldn't call Xenoblade Chronicles 3 or BotW/TotK either incompetence or carelessness. They were doing a great job working with what they have on said games and those still look mushy and have occasional frame drops.

If you think that's enough, I'm more than happy for you, but if and only if a successor to the Switch launches next year, the console will have been on the market for an astonishing 7 years, which is more than any Nintendo home console survived without being replaced so far (congratulations to the Gameboy in that regard as it has been pumping 9 and a half years before the Gameboy Color came out). Such a long lifespan is not necessarily a bad thing, but it also shows that there's a lot of potential for a system of the same price with much better specs.

 

[linuxares]

Let me spill some beans, but it might not be Nintendo that dmca them. But a troll. I'm following the story.

 

[froggestspirit]

Wonder what this means for skyline

 

[linuxares]

Wonder what this means for skyline

Yeah plus some other Bogus things happening

 

[duwen]

Yeah, Nintendo are far too busy copyright striking their own content.

source

 

[Skelletonike]

Wonder what this means for skyline

Well, that's stupid.

I'm not a fan of piracy and don't really blame Nintendo if they DMCA anything related to it, but someone else doing it for no reason is just stupid.
I might joke about reporting pirates and stuff, but that's because I don't really expect anyone to do stuff like that. That's... Sad?

 

[ertaboy356b]

Wonder what this means for skyline

Is that real though? The guy is a regular in Famiboards.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Still no keys for 16.0.3

Guess the DMCA was successful on what it set out to do.

 

[linuxares]

Still no keys for 16.0.3

Guess the DMCA was successful on what it set out to do.

Not all versions have new keys. Mostly its major releases

 

[MaxiBash]

saw the tweet, honestly I don't know if this is true (literally any John Doe could say they're behind DMCA claims) but if it is, jesus fucking christ. sending false DMCA's is illegal.

 

[JeepX87]

What next... Nintendo send DMCA notice to their online store, eShop and federal law enforcement seize eShop domain to make unavailable to gamers to buy games digitally.

Nintendo was like... wtf... shit... issue an apology to gamers and attempt to do everything to fix, lol!!!

 

[MaxiBash]

What next... Nintendo send DMCA notice to their online store, eShop and federal law enforcement seize eShop domain to make unavailable to gamers to buy games digitally.

Nintendo was like... wtf... shit... issue an apology to gamers and attempt to do everything to fix, lol!!!

read the last posted messages, and you'll see this one did not come from Nintendo

 

[JeepX87]

read the last posted messages, and you'll see this one did not come from Nintendo

I already saw before I posted #275 and I was joke about Nintendo's part.

 

[Randy Steele]

I'm so tired of people capitulating to Nintendo and other big companies. Emulation isn't illegal and it's been proven so in court. This is why devs need to get VPNs and remain completely anonymous online.

 

[MaxiBash]

I'm so tired of people capitulating to Nintendo and other big companies. Emulation isn't illegal and it's been proven so in court. This is why devs need to get VPNs and remain completely anonymous online.

A VPN won't solve that lol. Not putting your face online and remaining under an alias is the way to go.

 

[Randy Steele]

A VPN won't solve that lol. Not putting your face online and remaining under an alias is the way to go.

Well it can't hurt just to be safe. But yeah, that's pretty much what I meant. Go with an alias that can't be linked back to any other online accounts or social medias etc. That seems so obvious by now with how common this stuff is.