Homebrew FAQ: Is freeShop legal?

[The Catboy]

For a change of pace, where does the legality stand on downloading foreign versions of a game you already own domestically? For example, I have the NA versions of BB:CSII, Code of Princess, Samurai Warriors Chronicles, and Sonic Generations sitting right here on my shelf. If I were to download the Japanese versions of these titles, where would the legality stand on it then?

Before someone jumps in and says, "Of course it is. You already "own" the game.", I should point out that the titlekeys for the NA versions are different to the Japanese versions. And, I feel like this is creeping in a similar territory to, "I bought X game for Y system, therefore I should be able to "legally" download the version for Z system as well."

Sorry for the late reply, I had to get on lunch to really make a reply to this one. So basically it's still piracy to download the Japanese version of the same game you already own. You legally own the US version, but that doesn't mean you own versions from other regions. Unless it were the case where the game is the same across all regions. Otherwise you only own that regional version.
Now I am not 100% sure on this one since copyright laws are rather poorly equip to deal an issue like this. Not to mention country differences in copyright laws. But I am going to with the stance of, you legally only own the copy of the game you bought. Otherwise the titles are treated as two separate titlekeys. But like I said, this is something I am not 100% sure on and will have to do further research.

 

[gamesquest1]

If the game is on the eShop, then it's perfectly fine to download them.
Your only ever at risk with leaked games, which would never hit the eShop early and thus wouldn't be part of freeShop

well except for the whole pokemon sun and moon situation where the eshop version is region free but the game wasn't officially out in EU leading to some bans

but again as long as people stick to downloading games on their official release it should be fine, it's only really the pokemon games that are using a single universal copy of the game and I doubt the 3ds will be getting any more of those

 

[The Catboy]

well except for the whole pokemon sun and moon situation where the eshop version is region free but the game wasn't officially out in EU leading to some bans

but again as long as people stick to downloading games on their official release it should be fine, it's only really the pokemon games that are using a single universal copy of the game and I doubt the 3ds will be getting any more of those

I actually had to look that up, I didn't know they were released later in the EU. I thought Nintendo moved past that

 

[Ev1l0rd]

I actually had to look that up, I didn't know they were released later in the EU. I thought Nintendo moved past that

Nope. They are still ridiculous with regional timing. Specter of Torment is STILL not out in Europe, despite the Americas already having it for over a month. Only the Switch has true region-free at the moment if I'm not mistaken.

 

[The Catboy]

Nope. They are still ridiculous with regional timing. Specter of Torment is STILL not out in Europe, despite the Americas already having it for over a month. Only the Switch has true region-free at the moment if I'm not mistaken.

Now that's a damn shame

 

[zenzetsu]

yay! now I don't have to feel as guilty using freeshop

 

[The Catboy]

I added a hyper link to "TL: DR section"
Also I would like to mention that this thread does not advocate piracy nor does it argue the legality of piracy.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Not gonna read all 9 pages of replies, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that the whole "It's okay to download straight from Nintendo's servers since they didn't secure it" argument is a load of baloney. If a bank for one reason or another forgets to lock their vault that doesn't mean people are free to take money from it without consequence since "it's Nintendo's the bank's fault."

 

[BARNWEY]

Not gonna read all 9 pages of replies, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that the whole "It's okay to download straight from Nintendo's servers since they didn't secure it" argument is a load of baloney. If a bank for one reason or another forgets to lock their vault that doesn't mean people are free to take money from it without consequence since "it's Nintendo's the bank's fault."

FreeShop isn't used for just piracy, you can dump your enctitlekeys.bin file off your 3ds, and use that to redownload games and updates you legally own. That's why it's technically legal...

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Not gonna read all 9 pages of replies, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that the whole "It's okay to download straight from Nintendo's servers since they didn't secure it" argument is a load of baloney. If a bank for one reason or another forgets to lock their vault that doesn't mean people are free to take money from it without consequence since "it's Nintendo's the bank's fault."

That's not the argument though. The argument is that freeShop is legal, as long as you are supplying your own keys to it. Now I'm aware few people use it like that (I personally use it for my own keys and try to promote this behavior, since the alternative has caused freeShop discussion to be banned from /r/3dshacks).

These files are public, but they are encrypted. No reason for Ninty to protect them any further, as encryption isn't easily broken nowadays, unless you have the key. All freeShop does is give you an alternative interface to use these keys (the official one is just the eShop). The 'free' part in freeShop comes from the fact that it is free as in free Speech. Not as in "free games".

Legitimate uses for freeShop include:

- A cleaner interface for the eShop which is hugely bloated to the point of unusability.
- A better filtering mechanism than the eShop offers.

 

[The Catboy]

Not gonna read all 9 pages of replies, but I'm gonna go ahead and say that the whole "It's okay to download straight from Nintendo's servers since they didn't secure it" argument is a load of baloney. If a bank for one reason or another forgets to lock their vault that doesn't mean people are free to take money from it without consequence since "it's Nintendo's the bank's fault."

You did read all of it and simply stopped at one point.
It's not the lack of security that makes it legal. It's the argument that answers the question of, "Is it legal for freeShop to access these servers." Being that Nintendo does not restrict who can and can't access them, and even the method to access them. The the answer is basically "Yes, freeShop can legally access these servers as they are not restricted." If there was an account based service that required the user to login first, then that would a different story.
Actually the bank would be held at fault if they forgot to lock the safe. Of course that would not negate the crime, but the bank would still be penalized for negligence.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Actually the bank would be held at fault if they forgot to lock the safe. Of course that would not negate the crime, but the bank would still be penalized for negligence.

Thank you for validating my point.

 

[The Catboy]

Thank you for validating my point.

I validated that robbing a bank would be against the law.
Once again, I would like to mention that I am not arguing the legality of piracy nor is that the intent of this thread.

 

[Jayro]

I have never heard of cops busting your door down and halling you to jail for game sharing.

 

[The Catboy]

I have never heard of cops busting your door down and halling you to jail for game sharing.

Well actually
Given enough evidence of a crime, Nintendo has actually thrown their weight around. Of course in that case, there was plenty of evidence against him showing that he was committing a crime.

 

[Jayro]

Fair enough, but I'm not Australian, I'm American. We have bigger fish to fry than some small time software pirates. Pirates are like, on the very bottom of their "To-Bust" list.

 

[Pedeadstrian]

I validated that robbing a bank would be against the law.
Once again, I would like to mention that I am not arguing the legality of piracy nor is that the intent of this thread.

Neither was I. I saw people making a flawed argument and argued against it. That was all.

 

[The Catboy]

Neither was I. I saw people making a flawed argument and argued against it. That was all.

Take me out of the game, coach

 

[BARNWEY]

Thank you for validating my point.

The software itself is legal. What some people do with it may be illegal, but there are also those who use it for legitimate purposes...

 

[aykay55]

Disclaimer!​

I don't normally add tags like to a thread, but I feel it's necessary for the subtopic I have to include to eliminate the rumors around TheCruel's situation. What happened to him has no connection to freeShop nor any of his other projects. However not including this detail would be a disservice to freeShop. That being said, this is not the topic to talk about TheCruel nor his crimes. Any further comments must be post in the separate thread made for that topic. Any and all comments related to his crimes will be treated as off topic and reported. If that thread is locked and or removed, that does not open the door to bring the conversation to this thread. This will be the only warning I will give.
Right! We all good now?

So one of the most common questions when addressing freeShop is, is it legal? Does freeShop itself violate any actual copyright laws?

Spoiler: TL: DR version

It's legal

Long version for the nerds
So is it legal? This question really depends on what you mean by "legal?" Homebrew legality itself is really subjective to different countries and their copyright laws. Technically in the US hacking your system is actually in violation of the DMCA, even if it's a never enforced policy. But that doesn't answer the question is freeShop itself a legal homebrew? And the simple answer is actually yes. FreeShop is based on free and open source software no longer containing any of Nintendo's code (turns out 3DS bootsplash wasn't a default feature of launching applications on the 3DS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.) Being that it contains no actual copyrighted code, it doesn't violate any actual copyright laws. FreeShop did run into some legal issues when it turned out the 3DS bootsplash was actually copyrighted code and included without legal permission from Nintendo. This resulted in freeShop getting a DMCA takedown noticed and the repos being pulled from github with the following noticed posted in regards to reason for the takedown.

So does this actually make freeShop illegal? The answer isn't so black and white, but let me breakdown the notice. The DMCA notice does indeed target the potential piracy uses for freeShop, but that's not completely the reason why it was taken down nor does that make it illegal. Arguing that potential piracy uses makes something inherently illegal only opens the door to arguing that every single web browser, download manager, torrent downloader, usenet, etc. are all inherently illegal as well. Each and every one of these tools can be used to illegal piracy and or circumventing security systems. Which is also why Nintendo actually removed it for the copyrighted code it contained. The 3DS bootsplash is indeed Nintendo's own code and was included without legal permission from Nintendo, straight from the takedown notice

With that said, the bootsplash was indeed included unethically and Nintendo had the right to remove the repo for that reason. But this also meant that simply removing the bootsplash completely resolved Nintendo's legal grievances with freeShop. This doesn't mean it resolved the piracy fears from Nintendo, but at the same time Nintendo would have prove that freeShop was made and distributed with piracy in mind. This is where freeShop technically wins the "legal" argument, as freeShop was never made with piracy as the main intent.

But isn't freeShop intended for piracy? Nope, in fact right from the description of freeShop

Now once again this does actually get into some legal grey areas. Technically backing up your own games (or in this case tickets) has always been a bit of a legal kerfuffle, but ultimately has never been declared outright illegal. In most cases so long as you are the only one benefiting from this backup and not actually distributing the files, Nintendo has very shaky legal ground to stand on. Which brings up the question, is it ok to use this ticket to redownload my games from the eShop? While this is also a bit of a legal grey area as well. Nintendo says, "No," but at the same time would actually have a hard time trying to prove why it's illegal. Nintendo actually does not encrypt their servers to who can and can't access them. You can actually download eShop games right now from Nintendo's server through your web browser. You can also make purchases completely anonymously. You can actually buy an eShop card from a store and buy games without a NNID nor any other form of information given to Nintendo (minus your ZIP code for tax purposes.) With this in mind, Nintendo would have to argue how freeShop is actually violating the laws if it's your ticket and you are downloading your game from a market that doesn't lock down their games. If Nintendo had put a paid online service or accounts only service on the eShop, this could be a completely different story. As it stands now, freeShop is not actually doing anything illegal accessing these servers. Despite what Nintendo claims, it's actually completely on their end to have setup measures to prevent these kinds of transactions from happening. Nintendo would have to defend why they didn't setup any form of security on their end to prevent a service like freeShop from accessing their servers. This is most likely why Nintendo presented the actual copyright for the 3DS bootsplash, but failed to provide what copyright laws were broken. This is also why it was worded as

Note that Nintendo only "believes" that it can be used for piracy, which can not actually be used as a "legal argument" without proving it to be intended for piracy. As well can not be used for the reasons I mentioned above. Basically Nintendo's poor security and inability to prove intend for piracy only harms them more than it would harm freeShop. Thus as it stands now, the code is legal and so is the legal usage (as in downloading your own legally bought games.)

But doesn't the name "freeShop" imply piracy?
FreeShop from what I can tell is actually a pun, mixing the words "free" from the Free Software Movement and eShop. One could argue that the name is implied for piracy and getting free games, but that's really more about perspective. Either way, the naming doesn't really matter when it comes down to it. It could easily be named something like "CIAngel" or something along those lines and still not have anything to do with piracy.

TheCruel got arrested! Does this have anything do with freeShop and am I safe?!?
This is a topic I can't avoid, but I am going to do my best to distance his real crimes from the speculations. First, you can read about his crimes here and like I said at the start of the thread, keep it to that thread. Now to answer the question, did freeShop have anything to do with his arrest? And the answer is just a flat NO! His case dates back to 2012, long before he became part of the 3DS scene. Outside of the DMCA takedown notice, freeShop has not been under any other form of legal issues as they had removed the offending content. There is no connection between his crimes and freeShop. Proof being that freeShop's original source code is still available and since his arrest freeShop has been forked. Downloading, forking, and using freeShop will not get you under any form of legal troubles. Nintendo will not go after you for using freeShop as it would be a complete witch hunt on their end to do so. This doesn't matter how you are using it, the likelihood of facing legal charges are slimmer than winning the lottery.


So in closing, is freeShop legal? Mostly, the code is legal and accessing Nintendo's servers despite being frowned upon isn't completely illegal. Are you safe using it? For the most part, yes, it's extremely unlikely you will face legal charges unless you do something stupid. By stupid I mean like walking up to a Nintendo executive and being like, "LOOK AT ALL MY PIRATED GAMES! LOOK AT ME PIRATING GAMES!" Does it have anything to do with TheCruel's arrest? Nope, stop asking and stop spreading rumors. Was there a point to this thread? Yes, because legal stuff!

I love circumventation! What exactly was TheCruel arrested for?