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.

  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.worldEnglish
    127·
    10 months ago

    They should go one step further and ban the programming language as well the emulator was created in. That will show them!

  • JustUseMint@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    10 months ago

    Thanks for the Streisand effect Nintendo. Hadn’t even heard of this until now. Now I’m downloading everything, and I’ll be donating to the devs if possible. And telling my friends to do the same. I will continue not giving you money for over 10 years now.

    Eat shit.

    • u_tamtam@programming.devEnglish
      20·
      10 months ago

      I agree with the sentiment and everything, but the whole gaming console industry has gone to crap after they started putting hard drives/storage in them with the goal of needing you to be online and not owning anything anymore. They are all equally despicable for that. Which makes emulation even more essential, just for preserving those games into the future when the online front will inexorably shut down.

      • JustUseMint@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        I agree with this as well. However, Nintendo is like the Disney of lawsuits for the gaming industry. No one, and I mean NO ONE protects IP like they do.

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      10 months ago

      I can’t boast of your 10-year track record, but my next 10 years started today. I canceled my Nintendo online and I’m selling my switch. Fuck Nintendo

    • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
      15·
      10 months ago

      I think @[email protected] 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.

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.onlineEnglish
          31·
          10 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.

            • IllNess@infosec.pubEnglish
              31·
              10 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.

              • nintendiator@feddit.clEnglish
                2·
                10 months ago

                because Yuzu acknowledges their software can’t run without the Switch’s decryption keys.

                That’s a failure on the DMCA, not on Yuzu.

                The law clearly establishes the protection by which you are allowed to make a personal backup copy. Yuzy thus should by design allow you to play this backup copy, as would any other emulator that actually did its job. If you need to break DRM in order to get your own keys to play your personal copy in the first place, it’s not Yuzu’s fault, it’s a DMCA provision that has been put n place without forethought on how it clashes against the use provision.

            • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.onlineEnglish
              36·
              10 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.

    • AuliEnglish
      1011·
      10 months ago

      So what purpose does an emulator server legally speaking? And I don’t think anyone uses their car for accidents.

        • Dran@lemmy.worldEnglish
          341·
          10 months ago

          especially true for when manufacturers stop supporting the console you invested into, stops making replacement parts, issuing security patches, etc. Having the ability to make, repair and use copies of the games you purchase is critical to digital preservation.

        • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.worldEnglish
          49·
          10 months ago

          But let’s be real though. Getting a car and driving it a crowd on purpose is an extraordinarily small percentage of car users. You can’t say the same about emulation. A torrent site I frequent has 28000 downloads of Smash Bros Ultimate. I don’t believe for a second there are 28000 broken copies people are trying to replace.

          Don’t get me wrong, I love emulation. It has huge benefits! Access to out of print games, higher framerates and resolutions. But I’m not going to pretend piracy isn’t a massive component of it, particularly on current gen systems.

          • littleblue✨@lemmy.worldEnglish
            112·
            10 months ago

            You’re either missing the crux of the argument entirely somehow, or your rebuttal is complete shit on purpose.

            None of your points are the fault of Yuzu’s creators.

            Just like: gun manufacturers cannot be sued for school shootings, Salinger couldn’t be held liable for the frequency his seminal work was found in psychopaths’ belongings, and Oscar Meyer isn’t at fault when you lost a non-zero amount of their meat products up your ass. Just sayin’.

      • 520@kbin.social
        61·
        10 months ago

        So what purpose does an emulator server legally speaking?

        They provide compatibility for software made to run on one platform to work on another.

        Providing compatibility is one of the most protected use cases of reverse engineering in US law.

        And I don’t think anyone uses their car for accidents.

        Lots of terrorist groups do.

      • monotremata@kbin.social
        2·
        10 months ago

        In addition to “format shifting,” which is a well-recognized use case, and game preservation, which is a huge and under-recognized public interest in emulator development, emulators are also used for the development of homebrew software. E.g., there’s a port of Moonlight for the Switch, which lets you play Steam games streamed from a PC using your Switch, letting it serve many of the purposes of a Steam Deck. That’s huge! It would be way less practical to develop this kind of software if you could only test on real hardware. Testing on real hardware is also essential, of course, but testing on an emulator is vastly faster for rapid iteration.

      • aeronmelon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        10 months ago

        Increased user accessibility, backing up and ensuring continued usability of purchased software, democratizing hardware choice, allowing for continued community support for software that has been abandoned, teaching people how software works in relation to different hardware…

      • blindsight@beehaw.orgEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I don’t see anyone else bringing up that, in the case of the Switch, emulation actually plays better than on original hardware. Higher framerate, resolution, and graphics settings. And no broken JoyCons.

        Emulation also opens up save states, speed up/slow mo, romhacks, widescreen mods, ultra widescreen mods, save file editing, cheats, and lots of other legitimate uses. Speed runners often use emulation to practice the hardest sections using save states before doing their line run on OG hardware.

        Some of those use cases are also possible on flash carts (romhacks, save file editing, and some forms of cheats), but a lot really on emulation.

      • PlasterAnalyst@kbin.social
        1·
        10 months ago

        Legally, you’re allowed to make copies of games that you own and use them in an emulator. You can download mods, play multiplayer across the Internet when servers get shut down and also take advantage of better hardware and get better resolution and framerates, then there are quality of life improvements like savestates.

    • oopy_soup@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      What are you playing on? I would play my switch more if the games weren’t so expensive.

    • edifier@feddit.itEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Sold my switch years ago, I’m not playing switch games atm but I really can’t stand Nintendo’s policies like this!

  • Destide@feddit.ukEnglish
    33·
    10 months ago

    Might as well set the groundwork to make it easier to shut down any emulators for the new console. Can’t have old steam deck and others taking the handheld market

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      31·
      10 months ago

      nintendos shitty hardware is the only thing keeping me from buying their excellent games. I would rather buy a steam deck and deal with all the associated bullshit getting an emulator working rather than purchase nintendo’s terrible plastic shit.

      i sound angry, but thats because i am. i love their games, would give them my money to play them. BUT NOT on crap hardware. never, ever again, nintendo.

      harrrumph

      • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
        10·
        10 months ago

        I don’t have a problem with the tech being old as long as the games are good, but the failure rate of their joycons and pro controllers is abysmal! I got a converter to use a PS5 controller on the Switch and it’s much better!

  • Fake4000@lemmy.worldEnglish
    322·
    10 months ago

    From what I understood, is that the team’s Patreon page is a means of making financial gains of emulating the Switch. This could be the reason why Nintendo is suing.

    Vanced NFT memories.

    • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      10 months ago

      Well Vanced was a lot different, they were actually redistributing code from YouTube. They were asking to be sued and they got off really easy.

      Whereas here, no code is being used afaik. They don’t even include the keys for the decryption for the console. So the only thing this can do is: decrypt game files once provided keys and then run an emulated graphics pipeline and logic process for said game.

      Now I can see an argument about how Yuzu is specifically built to emulate the Switch which is a current product. Which makes this sketchy. But also it’s an emulator. What’s better is that breaking the law is not required to use the emulator. You can get your own rom rips and keys and use them with the emulator which gives it a legal purpose as a 3rd party application.

      This is Nintendo just trying to scare them Id bet. Not a zero chance that Yuzu could lose though.

  • nintendiator@feddit.clEnglish
    22·
    10 months ago

    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.

    Yeah, so what?

    It’s, legally speaking, not Yuzu’s domain to regulate what I can lawfully do within my own home with hardware I bought , or not. It’s not even Nintendon’t’s domain, and they are literally a Yakuza branch.

  • Luckaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    19·
    10 months ago

    I wonder if they’re going after Switch emulators now because the emulation capability is matching the product lifecycle, and that the patreon page makes the Yuzu team legally targetable.

    If we’re in for a repeat of GC -> Wii in the sense of the Wii being a more powerful GC, then Yuzu is potentially already close to being able to emulate the next gen Nintendo console out of the gate.

    If that is the case, that’s just par for the course when you’re dealing with nearly decade old hardware.

  • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
    5·
    10 months ago

    I’m very uninformed here, haven’t gamed in a few years. But I’ve got a question- is yuzu software that is run on a rooted Switch device, or similar like a steam deck? Or do you run it on a computer? Or perhaps, it’s all of the above.

    Anyway, thanks in advance if someone could give me a high level overview

        • owenEnglish
          8·
          10 months ago

          It’s mainly meant for desktop I think. I suspect you need a very powerful android

    • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      Steam Deck is just a Linux computer, but it runs on any computer running Linux, Windows, or apparently Android, with capable hardware. It looks like it isn’t ready for Mac yet, though Ryujinx supposedly is.

      It doesn’t run on a rooted Switch as far as I’m aware, but I don’t see the point in that. There’s no need to emulate the hardware if you’re actually using the hardware.

    • skankhunt42English
      43·
      10 months ago

      Yuzu, to my knowledge, is PC only.

      To get the information you need to use it, you’ll either download it illegally or hack a switch (legally?) To get encryption keys and dump a copy of your game.

      • unfnknblvbl@beehaw.orgEnglish
        5·
        10 months ago

        It runs on Android now, which might be what’s gotten Nintendo extra annoyed here, since there are some relatively affordable Android handhelds that can run Switch games at close to full speed with some tweaking.

        Having said that, I have an Odin 2 handheld, and it would have been cheaper and easier to just buy a Switch and the games I want to play.

      • DarkSirrushEnglish
        62·
        10 months ago

        PC only implies it’s a windows program, yuzu runs on any x86_64 and ARMv8a or newer device.

      • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        2·
        10 months ago

        I heard about the keys and the other website that serves them, seems an extremely important detail. I imagine the game dumps/copies are available as disk images of some sort online?

        Thanks a lot for the info, skankhunt42!

        • skankhunt42English
          3·
          10 months ago

          .xci files are physical switch game images and .nsp files are updates or games from the eShop. Everything is online somewhere.