[UPDATE] The entry on the Dolphin blog has been changed slightly to more accurately reflect the situation. While their original post yesterday said Valve had received a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo, the revision now claims it is a cease & desist order citing the Anti-Circumvention provisions in the DMCA.

Pierre Bourdon, a former member of the Dolphin team, has claimed on Mastodon that the order originated with Valve. He reports that Valve reached out to Nintendo regarding Dolphin, and Nintendo issued the C&D in response. If this is the case, it would impact Dolphin's available options for recourse as Valve retains the right to remove listings from their storefront. It also means, however, that Nintendo is not pursuing legal action against the Dolphin team right now.

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[ORIGINAL STORY] Back in March, the team behind the Dolphin GameCube/Wii emulator announced that they would be bringing Dolphin to Steam sometime in the second quarter of 2023. However, the release seems to be indefinitely delayed after Valve received a DMCA notice from Nintendo. Posting on their blog today, the team announced that Steam had contacted them to let them know of the takedown notice and that the page will be down "until the matter is settled." The team is currently investigating their options and promise a more in-depth update as soon as possible.

PC Gamer claims to have reviewed the document, dated today, May 26. It reads, in part:

Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store.

The Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization and decrypting the ROMs at or immediately before runtime. Thus, use of the Dolphin emulator unlawfully 'circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under' the Copyright Act.

Nintendo is attacking the Dolphin Emulator under the DMCA's Anti-Circumvention provisions, citing the inclusion of the Wii's common key in Dolphin's source code. Nintendo argues that because the common key allows Dolphin to decrypt data, it allows users to illegally circumvent measures put in place to control access to works protected under the Copyright Act - in this case, GameCube and Wii games.

Dolphin is somewhat unique in distributing this key already built in to its source code, as most emulators require the end user to provide a key or BIOS on their own. Emulator frontend RetroArch has also been added to Steam but, contrary to Dolphin, hasn't been the target of DMCA attacks by Nintendo, likely because its builds and cores require external BIOS and key files not found within their source code.

As of now, it appears as if this only affects Dolphin Emulator's upcoming release on Steam. It is still available to download on the official website.

 

[Desconocido90]

I understand the main cause is Dolphin including the Wii encryption key inside their code.

So the question is... Are there other emulators in the same situation, with encryption keys builtin, and therefore vulnerable to a DMCA?

 

[Kioku]

As someone explained with a Twitter some posts ago, the reason is the inclusion of a private key in the source code.
Dolphin brought it up open itself.
I think no sane person could think this is overreach or abuse of DMCA to be honest.
I think it can be fixed though.

Anyway, a recent video from MVG makes it clear:


@relauby Perhaps it would be nice to update the OP/News with info regarding either the Twitter post or the MVG video?

Littlemac warned em THREE years ago… Huh…

 

[AlexMCS]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number

That's a stupid concept. The whole article mentions no laws either.
Copyrighting integers is almost as retarded as copyrighting common names.

Keys are just a number, they can be derived from any formula.
Just use a PRNG with the correct seeds to derive the key if that's the issue.

 

[TanMasked]

View attachment 374118​

Back in March, the team behind the Dolphin GameCube/Wii emulator announced that they would be bringing Dolphin to Steam sometime in the second quarter of 2023. However, the release seems to be indefinitely delayed after Valve received a DMCA notice from Nintendo. Posting on their blog today, the team announced that Steam had contacted them to let them know of the takedown notice and that the page will be down "until the matter is settled." The team is currently investigating their options and promise a more in-depth update as soon as possible.

PC Gamer claims to have reviewed the document and says it is dated today, May 26. It reads:



It is worth noting that, as of now, it appears the DMCA notice only affects Dolphin Emulator's release on Steam. It is still available to download on the developer's website.

As if Nintendo couldn't get any worse. This is BULLSHIT.

 

[linuxares]

That's a stupid concept. The whole article mentions no laws either.
Copyrighting integers is almost as retarded as copyrighting common names.

Keys are just a number, they can be derived from any formula.
Just use a PRNG with the correct seeds to derive the key if that's the issue.

Welcome to Copyright law. It's stupid as all hell!

 

[Rahkeesh]

I understand the main cause is Dolphin including the Wii encryption key inside their code.

So the question is... Are there other emulators in the same situation, with encryption keys builtin, and therefore vulnerable to a DMCA?

In practical terms the only ones that matter are Nintendo emulators. Wii was the first Nintendo system to use key cryptography. Cemu, Citra, and Yuzu/Ryujinx all expect you to source your own keys. So none of the other common Nintendo emulators are vulnerable to this particular line of attack. And the wisdom of those other emulators' approach is pretty much validated by this event.

 

[Dungeonseeker]

It’s highly debatable whether a key can be considered copyrighted material for the same reason why any specific word or number can’t be. In fact, it probably wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny in court. They’d have different grounds to be sour, but they’re not DMCA-based. Dolphin simply doesn’t want to be the next Bleem! - these proceedings cost money, and since their circumstances are different, they’d have to argue their case almost from scratch.

Did you watch the video? MVG literally showed the wikipedia entry showing that yes, it is very much illegal.

 

[linuxares]

If they just do like all the other emulators and force you to provide your own keys. It's perfectly fine.

Did you watch the video? MVG literally showed the wikipedia entry showing that yes, it is very much illegal.

I don't think it's illegal, rather. Very much in the grey. DMCA however got this stupid TPM circiumvention clause that these keys falls under.

 

[Dungeonseeker]

If they just do like all the other emulators and force you to provide your own keys. It's perfectly fine.


I don't think it's illegal, rather. Very much in the grey. DMCA however got this stupid TPM circiumvention clause that these keys falls under.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number

Its illegal.

 

[linuxares]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_number

Its illegal.

Have any of these gone to court in the US? Because with DeCSS. DeCSS won under free speech.

 

[Foxi4]

Did you watch the video? MVG literally showed the wikipedia entry showing that yes, it is very much illegal.

We’re not discussing whether it’s illegal or not, we’re discussing whether the DMCA covers it under its copyright-related provisions. MVG is also not a lawyer, nor is the average Wikipedia editor, but that’s besides the point.

 

[Foxi4]

Have any of these gone to court in the US? Because with DeCSS. DeCSS won under free speech.

Nintendo could hook them on illegal trade secret (in fact, I alluded to that in my earlier post), that much is correct - they can argue that because that’s what it actually is. DMCA doesn’t cover that, and their complaint is based on the DMCA. They can *claim* that it’s a violation of Title 1, but that’s just a claim - it needs to be argued in court, and it’s hard to argue that a key you yourself are using in your software is a circumvention device (hence the DeCSS case).

 

[sarkwalvein]

I wonder if, other than suggested through legal bullying, any 128-bit number has been deemed illegal to distribute by a court.
I wonder, should a calculator be produced so that any calculation reaching one of these "illegal" numbers results in an error?
What if you wrote something like "253978156702724947968 * 1234567899987654321 + 5972765197965643950839", would that also be illegal?

PS: Probably yes, but no idea where to look to confirm this.

 

[Foxi4]

I wonder if, other than suggested through legal bullying, any 128-bit number has been deemed illegal to distribute by a court.
I wonder, should a calculator be produced so that any calculation reaching one of these "illegal" numbers results in an error?
What if you wrote something like "253978156702724947968 * 1234567899987654321 + 5972765197965643950839" also illegal?

The precedent is already set, as @linuxares mentioned and @Dungeonseeker somewhat unwittingly brought up by linking an article he didn’t read. I quote:

“In part of the DeCSS court order and in the AACS legal notices, the claimed protection for these numbers is based on their mere possession and the value or potential use of the numbers. This makes their status and legal issues surrounding their distribution quite distinct from that of copyright infringement.”

It is legally distinct from copyright infringement (so DMCA goes out the window for the most part, as I said - I’d have to look into the exact wording of TPM provisions) and legality depends on use case of the number. Subscribing copyright to a randomly generated set of digits and letters is asinine and the courts have recognised as much.

 

[Hassal]

I bet emulation will exist the next 1000 years but I cannot say the same with Nintendo. With this attitude I doubt it will make it the next 50 years.

 

[dudeguy2022]

Honestly guys I have no idea what you're talking about Nintendo is effectively eradicating piracy one step at a time, and as we all know, Nintendo is justified because piracy has a massive effect on Nintendo's income!

 

[gudenau]

Well in this case we're talking about Wii, but it applies to Nintendo across their entire history as well. They have an unbroken streak of cracked consoles, and their consoles have always been fastest and easiest to crack with each new generation.


RetroArch is on Steam with free plugins up to N64 and DS right on the store page. Nobody knew Dolphin was using a key that could be DMCA'd because Nintendo had never come after them before. Ninty just wanted to be dicks in this once particular instance simply because they could be.

I knew about the key, they used to not have it. They put it in a few years ago because the Wii was super dead and it's a number that you can't copyright. (Again not a lawyer.)

 

[Dungeonseeker]

Have any of these gone to court in the US? Because with DeCSS. DeCSS won under free speech.

The precedent is already set, as @linuxares mentioned and @Dungeonseeker somewhat unwittingly mentioned by linking an article he didn’t read. I quote:



It is legally distinct from copyright infringement (so DMCA goes out the window for the most part, as I said - I’d have to look into the exact wording of TPM provisions) and legality depends on use case of the number. Subscribing copyright to a randomly generated set of digits and letters is asinine and the courts have recognised as much.

Oh its already gone to court, Sony Vs FailOverflow, Sony won an injunction.

https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/sony-computer-entmt-am-v-hotz

Remember they brought this case against him over "using their keys to jailbreak the PS3", in between the serving and the case Sony were tricked into retweeting the key and when it got to court they still won.

Not sure if anyone watchs LTT's WAN Show but one of his employees who used to live in Japan reckons that over there companies have to defend copyright in the same way as trademarks, that is to say, if they don't go after this stuff they lose the copyright entirely. Not really sure that's accurate but if it is it would explain a lot TBH.

 

[linuxares]

"March 31 settlement agreement between Sony and Hotz" a Settlement.... not actually up to a judge.

It wasn't FailOverflow but Geohotz.

 

[Foxi4]

Oh its already gone to court, Sony Vs FailOverflow, Sony won an injunction.

https://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/sony-computer-entmt-am-v-hotz

Remember they brought this case against him over "using their keys to jailbreak the PS3", in between the serving and the case Sony were tricked into retweeting the key and when it got to court they still won.

Not sure if anyone watchs LTT's WAN Show but one of his employees who used to live in Japan reckons that over there companies have to defend copyright in the same way as trademarks, that is to say, if they don't go after this stuff they lose the copyright entirely. Not really sure that's accurate but if it is it would explain a lot TBH.

Sony settled out of court. You really need to read the articles you post before speaking, there was *no* guarantee Sony would’ve come out on top. It was also Geohotz, as @linuxares mentioned.