[UPDATE] Dolphin's release on Steam indefinitely delayed after Nintendo sends cease & desist order to Valve

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[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.
 

Noctosphere

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Would be great if they could come up with a way for us to play their old games if they are gonna keep shutting down emulators...
there is a way, it's called "subscribing to NSO to be able to play SOME of their old games" or "Subscribing to NSO+ to be able to play A VERY FEW of their old "but not that old" games"
In short, they ask us to pay to RENT these games, games they haven't made a penny with for like over a decade, and they tell us that we will lose all these games in a few years when the Switch will shut down (if it's in three years, for example, and I subscribe now, I will have spent 300$).
Not to mention, that on their next console, that you will have to buy for over 500USD btw, you will not have the possibility to, again, RENT these games yet. And I will also not mention that they will use the excuse of the so called inflation to rise the price of their subscription services

In short, they say "Fuck you! Give me your wallet!"
 

_47iscool

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Is the Switch like the competition in that it has internet-DRM requiring a connection to play downloaded games including retro?

Good thing the 360, PS3 and Wii work just fine without it.
 

sarkwalvein

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Is the Switch like the competition in that it has internet-DRM requiring a connection to play downloaded games including retro?

Good thing the 360, PS3 and Wii work just fine without it.
No, it doesn't require internet connection to play downloaded games in general.
But it does need it for Nintendo Online bound games. In this it is not that different than e.g. PS+ "free" games.
 
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tabzer

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innovation? is releasing games on nso at a pace slower than a snail innovative?
No. It was stifled. They can't do anything anymore.

No, it doesn't require internet connection to play downloaded games in general.
But it does need it for Nintendo Online bound games. In this it is not that different than e.g. PS+ "free" games.

PS+ makes me feel like I paid for those games already, so because I did so, I should try to keep them. The sunk cost fallacy is real with PS+. NSO could learn a thing or two from Sony's psychological manipulation.
 
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DavidinCT

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Dolphin is not going anywhere, Nintendo is not/well can't go after emulators.

Dolphin has Wii bios code in it. This should not be in there and they should have made end users put it in. THIS is why Nintendo is going after them.

This block was only for Steam, you can still download Dolphin right now and it still will work like always. I checked it's still available everywhere besides Steam.

This is also Steam's fault. Steam asked Nintendo if this is ok (trying to cover their a$$), and of course Nintendo said no.
 
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Viri

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Dolphin needs to remove the keys. Yeah the law is stupid, and dumb imo, but I don't think they should challenge it, or it might make things worse. If they don't remove it, Nintendo might just end up going after their website.
 

Maximo101

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Reading a history of video gaming... Turns out Dimtendo has sued everybody for everything. They even sued Teddy Ruxpin back in the 80's, I believe...

BTW, book is called 'The Ultimate History of Video Games (Vols 1 and 2)'. Excellent read, but looonnng
 

naed06

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Apparently this is the correspondence between valve and Nintendo
 

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Bladexdsl

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they have known about dolphin for years and that it contains the keys and have not tried to take it down. the only reason they are acting now is because it's now available on a well known service instead that will enlighten a lot more people about emulation instead of hidden from most people who don't have a clue about emulation on the dark web.
 

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