Nintendo is yet again back into its old copyright takedowns, issuing DMCAs.
This time, the affected site has been SteamGridDB, which many people have been using to create image assets for Steam and non-Steam games when added manually into it. Many more use it to link their ROMs through emulation into Steam as non-Steam games.

The Steam Grid database website has gained popularity over the years, more so due to the recent surge in Steam Deck users and their use of EmuDeck to setup their emulation libraries. EmuDeck itself provides a tool called Steam Rom Manager, which allows the user to configure their Steam image assets based on a community database that supplies all of the images detected from a specific ROM name, and from there the images are applied into Steam itself based on the grabbed images from the database if it finds a match.

At the moment, the website received DMCA takedowns for the following Switch games' images:

• Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
• Splatoon 3
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Other consoles and games haven't been affected.
SteamGridDB didn't offer any kind of ROM downloads nor links to them, the only offered material are plain images for a wide variety of games, and many of them are user-supplied and/or custom made by several users and supporters.

With this, Nintendo has started DMCA'ing websites over images.
Has Nintendo gone too far? What's gonna be next? All mentions of Mario in non-Nintendo websites getting DMCA'd?
Only time will tell.

Breath of the Wild entry at SteamGridDB
BotW Backup at Archive.org
Source

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

The switch emulators do violate the DMCA, so they would have a legal route.

Just because some emulators have been found to be legal, doesn't mean all emulators are legal.

DMCA wasn't tested during the Sony case, as it wasn't relevant.

They don't, and at worse, they'd just apply the exemption for archival purposes, as emulators are the only way to preserve games after the hardware starts dying.
Some emulators may have used actual copyrighted code, and those would be illegal, but they know Yuzu/Ryujinx don't and they can't attack them here.
Point is, it is evident that Nintendo would like to take them down, without any doubt, but they can't.

All legally, morally and even technically. Yuzu is open-source and as such, they can't get rid of it.

 

[Noctosphere]

Guys, if you want to boycott nintendo, buy their console, hack it, and never buy game
Were you aware that they make a loss for every console sold and they balance with games?

 

[smf]

They don't, and at worse, they'd just apply the exemption for archival purposes, as emulators are the only way to preserve games after the hardware starts dying.
Some emulators may have used actual copyrighted code, and those would be illegal, but they know Yuzu/Ryujinx don't and they can't attack them here.
Point is, it is evident that Nintendo would like to take them down, without any doubt, but they can't.

All legally, morally and even technically. Yuzu is open-source and as such, they can't get rid of it.

They do and they can apply for an exemption and they would be rejected.

It's not copyrighted code that is the problem, but that they implement decryption that protects access to switch games & that violates DMCA

As for morality, the emulator developers are raking in money from donations and that is immoral.

I don't think Nintendo would bother trying to take it down, because there is no money in it for them and it would reappear else where. You know how like criminals don't get caught by the police, because they've given up trying to stop them. It doesn't make robbery legal or moral.

 

[randy_w]

Guys, if you want to boycott nintendo, buy their console, hack it, and never buy game
Were you aware that they make a loss for every console sold and they balance with games?

Afaik that only applies to xbox 360 and ps3 due to the high cost of parts (bd drive and cell/xenon processors), for 8th gen consoles sony and microsoft still make $20-50 profit per console sold. Same for nintendo, iirc the production cost of switch is only $250. With newer revisions the production cost only goes down since it's still using a soc from 2015. Even a $150 smartphone like Galaxy A13 has better processor/screen than switch.

 

[Henx]

Good luck winning the web. Images, seriously?

There is always alternatives like vgboxart...

 

[stanleyopar2000]

so instead analyzing and fixing the issue WHY customers are going to emulation to play their products (BETTER than what the official hardware can) and release a more powerful follow up to the switch would could possibly potentially WIN back customers...they're just being spiteful fucks and trying to make other options which make them look bad.....less convenient.

I will be buying a Steam Deck next year, and no Nintendo, I will not be purchasing the switch hardware follow up.

This same bullshit obstinance to change and adapt is what made Sega of Japan lose out on working with Silicon Graphics (since Sega were their first pick) and instead Nintendo working with them for the Ultra 64 (Nintendo 64)

 

[SodaSoba]

I know it's a necro bump, this did affect me, sometimes I was able to upload art before any alternative cover work was added.
Sometimes using assets to recreate covers, mainly for vertical icons.
It's weird how only some games have been targeted, it makes me think it's a specific team involved in those games.

I'm unsure what covers I've had removed but all this would do is stop me sharing.

I guess it's misuse of press & promotional artwork but assets are given out, if it's in my browser cache from visiting a Nintendo site then how illegal is it to modify & use.

I assume squashed icons aren't of interest to Nintendo yet

 

[ELY_M]

Yes, They have gone too far!!!!!

Post automatically merged: May 7, 2023

this anger me so much. we all need to write to congress to repeal this trash DMCA law!