[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.

---

[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.

 

[jbheydude]

yeah omg

 

[Ryab]

So after looking into this situation a bit more. It seems like this is actually a fault on Dolphin's side. Dolphin includes the common decryption key in it's code. This key is technically the property of Nintendo. Dolphin should be using BIOS instead.

 

[thekarter104]

Nice over-reach, Nintendo.
I can hardly wait for your fingers to get slammed in the piano.

((The piano: ))

View attachment 374134

Bad graphics plugin Nintendo uses in their own emulators. First off please use a better and more accurate GlideN64 like plugin before even attempting going for emulators, Nintendo. Kthxbye

See you in the next 80 courts that you will lose.

 

[Idaho]

What do they think this accomplishes? Deck users can still install it, only now it'll take an extra 45 seconds

They don't want Valve to advertise the SteamDeck as an emulation device...

 

[nl255]

Turns out it wasn't a DMCA notice, what actually happened was that Valve contacted Ninty on their own and asked if it was ok and Ninty said no. Since there was no DMCA notification there is nothing Dolphin can do since the normal counter-notice procedure doesn't apply. Please update/fix the title and original post.

https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

 

[DeadSkullzJr]

You know it feels like an alternate timeline now a days, the negative timeline.

 

[Foxi4]

Turns out it wasn't a DMCA notice, what actually happened was that Valve contacted Ninty on their own and asked if it was ok and Ninty said no. Since there was no DMCA notification there is nothing Dolphin can do since the normal counter-notice procedure doesn't apply. Please update/fix the title and original post.

https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

If that’s the case then indeed there’s no legal recourse, but it also means Nintendo isn’t pursuing malicious legal action against the developers, so realistically this is the best outcome short of getting Dolphin on Steam.

 

[Hassal]

Turns out it wasn't a DMCA notice, what actually happened was that Valve contacted Ninty on their own and asked if it was ok and Ninty said no. Since there was no DMCA notification there is nothing Dolphin can do since the normal counter-notice procedure doesn't apply. Please update/fix the title and original post.

https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

Sony and Valve I can understand but Nintendo and Valve why? Its not like they are launching games on Steam every week for Valve to give a flying f*ck what Nintendo think.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

Average Nintendo illegally abusing DMCA moment

 

[ut2k4master]

Average Nintendo illegally abusing DMCA moment

average pirate not reading sources

 

[linuxares]

average pirate not reading sources

Average person 2023 only read title

 

[sarkwalvein]

The turns and twists of this story are... interesting.

 

[relauby]

Sony and Valve I can understand but Nintendo and Valve why? Its not like they are launching games on Steam every week for Valve to give a flying f*ck what Nintendo think.

It's also weird that they didn't do this when RetroArch was added to Steam. RetroArch actually lets you emulate games Nintendo is still trying to sell (via NSO) so you think they would have reached out and/or Nintendo would have issued a C&D for that too

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

average pirate not reading sources

I've read the whole debate on the decryption keys.
Issue is, the key is publically given to every wii and is the same.
Moreover, it cannot be defended as a trade secret or anything.
"Illegal numbers" also don't apply through the DMCA process.

So TL;DR, Nintendo is abusing the law and illegitimately doing claims once again.
If you want a fix, it is technically not "illegal", as the US laws are moronic and you can file a DMCA for anything. But it is illegitimate still.

Finally, they would've DMCA'd Dolphin, not Valve. I would advise to stop talking about the "private key" though as Nintendo might not be aware of that, just in case Big N wants to cause issues again in the future.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Keys can't be copyrighted. The DVD encryption key controversy already showed this. Nowadays you can even find it on Wikipedia.

If they had the money and time to take Nintendo to court, they would stand a chance at winning, but is it really worth the risk? Sadly, when you're up against a big corporation, most people don't find the risk worth it.
Especially not for a free & open source software like this. They have little to gain, and a lot to lose.

The biggest risk is that now that Nintendo have been made publicly aware, they might go after the Dolphin project itself for the same reason. That could have some very bad implications for the future of the project. If they would have to remove the key and have people provide it themselves, that wouldn't be the end of the world. That's what other emulators (such as Yuzu/Ryujinx) do already, and probably what Dolphin should have done from the beginning. I'm surprised Nintendo haven't gone after them before. But if they went the other route and ended the project in order to be safe rather than sorry, that would be bad.

 

[linuxares]

I've read the whole debate on the decryption keys.
Issue is, the key is publically given to every wii and is the same.
Moreover, it cannot be defended as a trade secret or anything.
"Illegal numbers" also don't apply through the DMCA process.

So TL;DR, Nintendo is abusing the law and illegitimately doing claims once again.
If you want a fix, it is technically not "illegal", as the US laws are moronic and you can file a DMCA for anything. But it is illegitimate still.

Finally, they would've DMCA'd Dolphin, not Valve. I would advise to stop talking about the "private key" though as Nintendo might not be aware of that, just in case Big N wants to cause issues again in the future.

They didn't claim shit apparently. Valve sent them a "is this okey to put on our storefront?" and Nintendo auto-replied with "No".

 

[Jayro]

Turns out it wasn't a DMCA notice, what actually happened was that Valve contacted Ninty on their own and asked if it was ok and Ninty said no. Since there was no DMCA notification there is nothing Dolphin can do since the normal counter-notice procedure doesn't apply. Please update/fix the title and original post.

https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

The dolphin devs and Valve didn't (and still don't) need Nintendo's permission. It's not Nintendo's emulator. An official Steam release is none of Nintendo's business. They have no legal ground to stand on as none of their code or IPs is used.

 

[linuxares]

The dolphin devs and Valve didn't (and still don't) need Nintendo's permission. It's not Nintendo's emulator. An official Steam release is none of Nintendo's business. They have no legal ground to stand on as none of their code or IPs is used.

https://odinlaw.com/what-is-dmca-anti-circumvention/

 

[gudenau]

@relauby https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

 

[relauby]

@relauby https://mastodon.delroth.net/@delroth/110440301402516214

It's already mentioned in the OP.