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.

  • JustUseMint@lemmy.world
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    1 year 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.dev
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      1 year 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.world
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        1 year 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.world
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      1 year 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

  • nintendiator@feddit.cl
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    1 year 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.

  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

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

  • Luckaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year 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.

        • IllNess@infosec.pub
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          1 year ago

          If Nintendo wins, the Github page and the website page will probably shutdown.

          Forking it now is a good idea.

          • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It will be forked to a thousand other platforms, including private git repositories hosted locally. That cat is out of the bag and fortunately there’s not a damn thing they can do about it

      • yetAnotherUser@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        The problem is with the development ceasing. The source code will remain, but if there’z no dedicated team developing bugs will not be fixed and features will not be added.

      • AnarchoCummunist [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        Go with Ryujinx. It’s a bit more accurate and works with a few more titles Yuzu may have issues with.

        A lot of Yuzu’s problem was flying too close to the sun with their Patreon as well. Gave Nintendo ammo for a lawsuit there.

    • edifier@feddit.it
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      1 year 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.uk
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    1 year 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

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        1 year 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!

  • NoLifeKing@ani.social
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    1 year ago

    Cars are used for driving around but some people use it for accidents and drunk driving! Ban cars!

    🤦

    • IllNess@infosec.pub
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      1 year 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.social
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        1 year 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.

          • NoLifeKing@ani.social
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            1 year ago

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

        • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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          1 year 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.social
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            1 year 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.

            • IllNess@infosec.pub
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              1 year 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.social
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                1 year 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…

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

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

      • NoLifeKing@ani.social
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        1 year ago

        There have been multiple instances of cars being driven into crowds, accidents is probably not the right word, i should say terrorism.

        And emulators are for people who bought a game for a console that broke, so now they play it on PC because they own the game.

        • Dran@lemmy.world
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          1 year 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.

  • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year 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

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 year 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.

        • owen@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

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

    • skankhunt42@lemmy.ca
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      1 year 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.

      • DarkSirrush@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

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