New documents filed Monday, February 26 reveal that videogame giant Nintendo is taking action against the creators of the popular emulator tool Yuzu.

The copyright infringement filing, from Nintendo of America, states that the Yuzu tool (from developer Tropic Haze LLC) illegally circumvents the software encryption and copyright protection systems of Nintendo Switch titles, and thus facilitates piracy and infringes copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Nintendo alleges that Tropic Haze’s free Yuzu emulator tool unlawfully allows pirated Switch games to be played on PCs and other devices, bypassing Nintendo’s protection measures.

The official Yuzu website suggests that the tool is to be used with software you yourself own: “You are legally required to dump your games from your Nintendo Switch” — but it’s common knowledge, that this is not how these tools are primarily used.

  • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    I think @Fake4000@lemmy.world made a solid point here.

    Nintendo goes after those that make money. That includes ROM sites too. For example, Nintendo didn’t sue Dolphin developers, they told Valve to take down their software. Please correct me if I am wrong.

    I am not saying that Nintendo goes only after those that make money but maybe a money papertrail takes away the anonymousness of the internet. Bank accounts makes finding people a whole lot easier.

    • NoLifeKing@ani.socialEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      Nintendo behaves illigaly or at least absolutely amoral. If you make money with your product or not is not up to some other company to decide.

      • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.onlineEnglish
        0·
        9 months ago

        It is when the product is using their IP to violate copyright laws.

        I fully support emulators and pirating, but I don’t lie to myself about it being legal or ethical.

        • NoLifeKing@ani.socialEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          Reverse engineering isn’t a IP violation… And the emulator group isn’t responsible for people using pirated software on it, that pirated stuff would run on the original hard and software as well.

          • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.onlineEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            Oh please, that’s the same argument of, “It’s not a bong, it’s a tobacco pipe.” Yeah, they might call it that to circumvent the law, but everyone knows damn well that 99% of users aren’t using it for that.

            They’re profiting off selling a tool that breaks encryption and bypasses copyright protections. The profit is the issue here.

            While I support their efforts, I can also realize that Nintendo absolutely has a right to try to stop them, and it’s not unethical for them to do so.

          • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
            0·
            9 months ago

            If you read the lawsuit Nintendo is suing because Yuzu acknowledges their software can’t run without the Switch’s decryption keys. Yuzu also has instructions to extract the decryption keys on their website. So Yuzu is not completely reverse engineering how the Switch runs games.

            • NoLifeKing@ani.socialEnglish
              0·
              9 months ago

              The keys aren’t something you can reverse engineer, they are a “security” feature and make shure that people can only use it when they own a switch and the game…

        • NoLifeKing@ani.socialEnglish
          0·
          9 months ago

          Nintendo suing and pressuring around may be illigal in some countries where they operate… Especially regarding the steam thing.