Nintendo’s full case filing


https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1762576284817768457/

"NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo’s software encryption and facilitates piracy. Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator.

Notes 1 million copies of Tears of the Kingdom downloaded prior to game’s release; says Yuzu’s Patreon support doubled during that time. Basically arguing that that is proof that Yuzu’s business model helps piracy flourish."

  • kadu@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I have a .zip containing the latest early access version of Yuzu, for Windows and Linux. It includes the emulator, all required decryption keys, the latest firmware for game compatibility, a tool to automatically download mods, and a convenient guide on how to acquire ROMs.

    I will forever distribute this .zip in a non-limited download link to anyone who asks me. Forever. You can PM me today and I’ll send it, you can PM me in 5 years and I’ll send it. Please feel free to do so. It’s not illegal to share where I live, so I’ll share. But do it via PMs, as to avoid causing trouble to the community.

    Again, forever. If you’re reading this in the future, unless I’m dead (my mental health is a bit shaky), I’m sending you a fully functional Yuzu pack.

    Have a nice day.

  • CALIGVLA@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    God I hate Nintendo, I hate them so goddamn much it’s impossible to find words to express myself.

    • wintermutehal@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      There are so many things that add up over time. I wouldn’t say I hate them just yet, but I‘be stopped buying their products. The way they go about their business just rubs me the wrong way. If the only way to try to communicate that is disengaging from any of their offerings, be it games or the new switch. Yea, I’m out.

    • Apollo2323@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      I feel the same. They are really disgusting , greedy and shitty company. I would not spend a single cent on their products.

    • TORFdot0@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They could have sold 19 million copies though. Won’t someone think of the billion dollar corporations?

      • PineRune@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I feel like a large number of the people pirating wouldn’t have bought the game even if it was their only option. Then there’s people who pirated and bought the game both. Unrealized profit is not the same as losing money.

        • caut_R@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I think the majority of these is people just downloading it to see if it works for 2 hours and never touch it again lol

        • yamanii@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah I don’t have a switch, and I’m not about to start it when the second one is near us.

  • bozo@lemmy.worldOP
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    9 months ago

    What’s more, is that from these passages, it sounds like Nintendo even wants backups of games you have lawfully purchased to constitute copyright violation and made illegal (because they have to bypass encryption, therefore violating DMCA). I’m not fluent in legalese though, so correct me if I’m misinterpreting:

    • the16bitgamer@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Ah corporate Lawyer BS, pointing out what they want to be true and not pointing out the other. ROMs are legal under existing Copywrite laws under archival laws in the USA (117) and backup laws in Canada (29.24). The Americans have a bit more of a restricted way of using their archives, but that’s not needs to be argued here, as it appears that Nintendo is blaming Yuzu for actions of the general consumer. It’ll be like blaming your Network provider for allowing a user to download a movie, both legally and illegally, thus they should be punished for both actions.

      I also love that Nintendo isn’t not stating it’s illegal here, just that it’s infringing because it’s not authorized.

      • captain_oni@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It’ll be like blaming your Network provider for allowing a user to download a movie

        Which, by the way it was recently ruled in the US that ISPs can’t be punished for that. article source

      • echo64@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Nintendo is blaming Yuzu for actions of the general consumer

        If you read the dmca, that’s something you can do. Making tools that enable others to break copyright protection is specifically disallowed. Which is why it’s one of the more insidious copyright laws

        • dustyData@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          However, the thing is that Yuzu doesn’t do that. Yuzu doesn’t include any form of tooling that breaks encryption, facilitates ROM dumping or offer downloads of Nintendo Copyrighted software. They aren’t facilitating it, the user has to provide all of that chain of the emulation on their own. Hopefully this would be obvious to a judge.

          • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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            9 months ago

            Yuzu doesn’t include any form of tooling that breaks encryption

            You cannot state that with certainty. That’s the problem.

            Yuzu does indeed include a method to use the Switch’s production keys (which you must dump yourself) to decrypt the games. Whether this constitutes effective DRM is not a question that can easily be answered and must be decided by a court on a case-by-case basis.
            This will be what the case will hinge on: Is Ninty’s scheme effective DRM?

            I would say no because symmetric encryption with a publicly known key may aswell be no encryption at all but that’s not my decision to make.

            They aren’t facilitating it, the user has to provide all of that chain of the emulation on their own.

            Um, no. The emulator is doing the decryption on its own. All the user does is provide the prod keys and unmodified ROM.

            • dustyData@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              Yuzu itself doesn’t provide tools to dump keys and Roms from the Switch. The user has to procure them, or the means to dump them, themselves. Thus Yuzu doesn’t facilitates DRM circumvention. The user has to solve that part on their own. They do provide guides for how to do it on their website. But Yuzu themselves don’t make or distribute the tooling, and Yuzu the software is incapable of doing it.

              • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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                9 months ago

                The dumps are just that: Dumps; 1:1 copies.

                The tools don’t decrypt anything; that happens within Yuzu. Why else would users need to provide the prod keys to Yuzu?

                • dustyData@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  To dump the keys, third party tools rely on DRM circumventing sploits. You essentially have to hack your own device, certain versions of Switch and certain software updates are no longer susceptible. But it remains that Yuzu doesn’t do any of that. Those tools and sploits were developed by others.

          • echo64@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            it decrypts games using your console keys though? i’ve seen mention of that in their docs so i’m not sure, but yeah if it does that, it’s similar to things that decrypt blurays. feasibly against the dmca because of how broad the dmca is.

  • Epzillon@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Typical Nintendo move. So sad to see Yuzu possibly going down this way. Even looks like Nintendo might win this one. I’m just gonna download the entire source from GitHub just in case.

    I wish this would just go full hydra mode if it goes down though. Start popping up new anonymous accounts releasing the source code everywhere.

    • laughterlaughter@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yuzu may go down, but Nintendo hasn’t learned the lessons of the Streisand effect and the hydra effect. The code is open source. 10 more projects will pop up the day after Yuzu goes down (IF it goes down.)

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Booo! Nintendo sucks! This was decided 30 years ago. Emulation is not illegal.

    • echo64@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s good we are all clear, nintendo isn’t arguing that. They are arguing a case about copyright infringement and being in violation of the dmca

      • hperrin@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        It is not illegal to make copies of games you own and play them on an emulator. That is what was decided by the courts. Nintendo is trying to make that illegal.

        They’re using the DMCA to say that because Yuzu lets someone circumvent their encryption (which is illegal, but shouldn’t be), that’s the same as Yuzu circumventing their encryption.

        That’s basically like saying VLC should be illegal because it has the capability of copying a DVD.

        • echo64@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They’re using the DMCA to say that because Yuzu lets someone circumvent their encryption (which is illegal, but shouldn’t be),

          Yes. That’s what I’m saying. That’s what I said.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yuzu is not infringing on their copyright, some of the users are. Sue the users.

                • echo64@lemmy.world
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                  9 months ago

                  (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that— (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or © is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. (3) As used in this subsection— (A) to “circumvent a technological measure” means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and (B) a technological measure “effectively controls access to a work” if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

        • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          They’re using the DMCA to say that because Yuzu lets someone circumvent their encryption (which is illegal, but shouldn’t be), that’s the same as Yuzu circumventing their encryption.

          Yes, yes they are. That’s how the DMCA works. It’s mental.

          • hperrin@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            That’s not how the DMCA works, or tons of other software would be illegal. It’s illegal to circumvent copy protection under the DMCA (something I wholeheartedly disagree with), but it’s not illegal to make something that can be used to circumvent copy protection.

            In fact, there are exemptions to that provision and one of them states that circumventing copy protection in order to play a video game using assistive technologies is legal.

            • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              It’s illegal to circumvent copy protection under the DMCA (something I wholeheartedly disagree with), but it’s not illegal to make something that can be used to circumvent copy protection.

              It is explicitly illegal to produce any thing whose purpose it is to circumvent DRM:

              (1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—
              (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof;

              I’m telling you, that law is mental.

              In fact, there are exemptions to that provision and one of them states that circumventing copy protection in order to play a video game using assistive technologies is legal.

              Could you point that specific exception in the law? I can’t find it.

              Link for convenience: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-105publ304/pdf/PLAW-105publ304.pdf

              • hperrin@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                The exceptions are handled by the Library of Congress and go through a renewal process every three years. Here’s the one from 2021:

                https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2021-10-28/pdf/2021-23311.pdf

                The accessibility use exception is on the last page, middle of the page, paragraph labeled 21.

                It’s illegal to make something that’s sole purpose is to circumvent copyright. Yuzu does not have that sole purpose, and doesn’t include the code necessary (prod.keys) to even accomplish it.

                • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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                  9 months ago

                  The actual text for reference:

                  Video games in the form of computer programs, embodied in lawfully acquired physical or downloaded formats, and operated on a general-purpose computer, where circumvention is undertaken solely for the purpose of allowing an individual with a physical disability to use software or hardware input methods other than a standard keyboard or mouse.

                  That explicitly only applies to physically disabled people. Yuzu is not specifically targetted at providing a different input method (at all) and certainly not solely for the physically disabled.

                  That exception is not relevant to this case.

        • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          I love YUZU and it’s wonderful…

          …but if they didn’t have a Patreon they’d have a better stance

          • yamanii@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            You are being downvoted but reminder to everyone that the public Yuzu is way behind on updates and compatibility, they sell access to their most recent version via their patreon. Something that Ryujinx does not do, it purely is a donation and nothing more.

            • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              You can download and view the latest Yuzu source code for free and do practically whatever you want with it (GPLv3), including building and running it.

              What paying via Patreon provides you is access to early access builds of the software. You’re paying for the convenience of them compiling the latest version of the software for you.

              • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                9 months ago

                You can even get all the latest EA builds as .exe files on the Yuzu PineappleEA GitHub!

            • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              9 months ago

              You can get all the latest Yuzu EA builds for free on their GitHub

              But the fact that they’re kinda “selling” access… wait, why exactly DO they “sell” access even? They might not have as much legal trouble if they didn’t do that.

  • thantik@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Yuzu actually even took steps to make the emulator NOT run pirated versions of the new Mario game before it officially released. I ran it on Ryujinx like a week ahead of its release date, but Yuzu literally refused. They insta-banned anyone who talked about it.

  • fne8w2ah@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    As the sweetest revenge maybe someone should leak all Switch games and DLCs into the public Internet.

    • SuperDuper@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      “Fuck you, here’s a switch port for a Wii U game. It’s $15 more expensive than the original release because fuck you that’s why.”

      -Nintendo

    • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yup. I was in a second hand game shop (cex) a month or so ago and most switch games were only 10 quid cheaper than the e shop. Mario and legend of Zelda where something like 50 pounds. That’s because those games don’t actually drop in price either psychically or on the eShop much.

  • samus12345@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I’ve been holding off on jailbreaking my launch Switch until the next one is out, but I think the time has come.

    EDIT: Aaand done. Biggest surprise so far is that there’s a homebrew Pizza Tower port for it! This game really belongs on consoles.

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’ve had one for years, waiting for when Nintendo dropped support. I’m not gonna give them any more money as far as the Switch is concerned, so no reason not to go for it now. A project for this weekend, maybe.

  • Polysics@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Edit: I am dumb, of course the source code is out there. I have visited this repository a thousand times but my monkey brain can’t remember what I ate for breakfast.

    https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu

    Everyone download the hell out of it and never let this die.

    ~ ~ ~

    If it isn’t already open source, Yuzu team needs to get that shiz open source post-haste. Let’s get that code absolutely everywhere.

    When that popular manga app Tachiyomi got legal bonked, the bajillion forks of it kept some semblance of the original going.

    I know there’s money to be made and something like an emulator is considerably more complex than a book reading app/scraper, but it would at least give the project a chance of not dying forever.

  • echo64@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    They might have a case if yuzu is actually decrypting switch software. That would be stupid of the developers, though. I would assume that they require you to provide decrypted games.

    That’s basically the only leg nintendo has to stand on here, but nintendo can out lawyer you into the poor house regardless.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      AFAIK rooted Switch consoles are used to decrypt the games and Yuzu just tries to execute whatever nonencrypted Switch binary. Unless Nintendo can prove that either the Yuzu developers themselves are behind ripping commercial Switch games or directly colluded with the rippers, they’d have a hard time to actually win. That said, regular people with normal income levels will probably just sign everything because a prolonged lawsuit is about just bankrupting them, not being ruled the win by the judge.

      • echo64@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        From their own guide

        yuzu starts with the error “Missing Derivation Components”

        yuzu requires console keys to play your games. Please follow our Quickstart Guide to dump these keys and system files from your Nintendo Switch.

        Their guide also talks about dumping games from your console so I’m not sure how far it goes, but if they want console keys they are likely decrypting something

        • dustyData@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yuzu doesn’t do any encryption breaking. The user is meant to use their Switch to dump their keys, which are legally owned by the user. Then it uses those legal keys to decrypt the ROMs by the exact normal method that the Switch itself uses. They were going based on precedent legal rulings about console emulation. Copying the decryption keys and making copies of the software for archival purposes have both been previously ruled to be perfectly legal for the enduser and don’t constitute piracy. This suit will challenge that notion.

          • echo64@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Then it uses those legal keys to decrypt the ROMs by the exact normal method that the Switch itself uses

            this is the part where they circumvent the copyright protection, even if you do it “the same way” it’s still not authorized, the DMCA is fairly broad about this stuff, one of the reasons it’s so bad