Some fallout from the early leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to be taking place. As players are loading the game into emulators and playing them unofficially on their computers, prior to the launch date, Nintendo is taking action to prevent that from happening. Lockpick and Lockpick_RCM are homebrew tools that allow users to dump unique keys from their Nintendo Switch console, which are required for numerous Switch hacking-related programs, including the Ryujinx and Yuzu Switch emulators. While Lockpick has been around for years, Nintendo has reportedly decided to go after it, by issuing a DMCA takedown to the GitHub project page, igniting concern and discussion within the community.

At the time of writing, Lockpick_RCM's repository is still active, it could be due to GitHub providing a grace period following a DMCA notice. Twitter user Simon Aarons was made aware of the takedown, after forking Lockpick, and allegedly receiving an email from GitHub, on behalf of Nintendo of America's legal team, who asserts that Lockpick is "circumvention software that infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Specifically, the reported repository provides Lockpick to users. The use of Lockpick with a modified Nintendo Switch console allows users to bypass Nintendo’s Technological Measures for video games; specifically, Lockpick bypasses the Console TPMs to permit unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch. The decrypted keys facilitate copyright infringement by permitting users to play pirated versions of Nintendo’s copyright-protected game software on systems without Nintendo’s Console TPMs or systems on which Nintendo’s Console TPMs have been disabled. Trafficking in circumvention software, such as Lockpick, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

Shortly after this, Skyline Emulator, a Switch emulator for Android devices, made the decision to shut down development, via a post on their Discord Server. Since you need the keys dumped from Lockpick in order to run Skyline, the team behind the emulator is concerned that it means Nintendo will target them for also violating their copyright.

It is with great sadness that we bring you this news. Recently, Nintendo has issued a DMCA takedown notice against Lockpick RCM which will likely come into effect on Monday, Lockpick is a core part of legally dumping keys from the Switch. They claim that it circumvents their copy protection (TPMs) and therefore violates their copyright. We find ourselves in a position where we are potentially violating their copyright by continuing to develop our project, Skyline, by dumping keys from our own Switches.

The Skyline team will be making their incomplete source code public, at the very least, and will keep the emulator's GitHub page active. Other homebrew projects are rumored to have been hit with DMCA notices as well. Ryujinx's emulator team stated that they will not be shutting down, following worries after Skyline.

 

[godreborn]

@godreborn Geohotz wouldn't agree with you.

That's not recent and under different management.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

Except I don't see Sony or Microsoft doing the same thing. I don't know if it's incredibly naive or incredibly stupid to think you can completely stop piracy on your system by issuing a few dmca takedowns. And, don't get me started on fan games, which is a total fuck you to their fans, simply because Nintendo can't profit off of them.

Not sure about Microsoft, but Sony would probably do it towards pirating of their 1st-party games if it got too out of hand (and were backed into a corner again, like when they ported their exclusives to PC and allowed crossplay, despite their old stance against such means of "playing nice" with their competitors). That would be, of course, if their policy priorities weren't...elsewhere.

As for fan games, I know of at least one other company that has historically had a thing against fan projects that gained notable traction. (NO, I'M NOT GOING TO DROP MY ANNOYANCE TOWARDS SQUARE ENIX SHUTTING DOWN CHRONO RESURRECTION! AND IT'S NOT THE ONLY CHRONO SERIES FAN PROJECT THEY'VE SHUT DOWN, EITHER!)

(Edit: Meant to put "Microsoft" instead of "Nintendo". Don't know how I made that blunder.)

 

[godreborn]

Not sure about Nintendo, but Sony would probably do it towards pirating of their 1st-party games if it got too out of hand. That would be, of course, if their policy priorities weren't...elsewhere.

As for fan games, I know of at least one other company that has historically had a thing against fan projects that gained notable traction. (NO, I'M NOT GOING TO DROP MY ANNOYANCE TOWARDS SQUARE ENIX SHUTTING DOWN CHRONO RESURRECTION! AND IT'S NOT THE ONLY CHRONO SERIES FAN PROJECT THEY'VE SHUT DOWN, EITHER!)

Well, a lot of ps4 and 5 projects are also on github, including mast1c0re. Sony now has the right approach. They're a realist that knows piracy is going to happen, so they try to mitigate the damages. I don't care if you pirate, but I don't think exploited systems should be allowed online. That's all I care about. Nintendo has all but insured that their next console will be hacked up the ass again.

 

[ChronosNotashi]

I don't care if you pirate, but I don't think exploited systems should be allowed online. That's all I care about.

More or less my stance on this. If you pirate, whether it's through emulation or the hardware, I'm not going to care (unless you're trying to justify it as a moral high ground, when imo pirating for more-or-less purely personal reasons is anything but a moral high ground). But yeah, the moment you take a modified system online, you don't get to complain if it gets banned due to the potential for cheating.

As for Sony...they probably learned that combating piracy would be difficult/impossible...around the time they tried to take a greater approach to combating it with PSP/Vita (which afaik had the opposite effect of encouraging piracy to a significant degree).

 

[godreborn]

More or less my stance on this. If you pirate, whether it's through emulation or the hardware, I'm not going to care (unless you're trying to justify it as a moral high ground, when imo pirating for more-or-less purely personal reasons is anything but a moral high ground). But yeah, the moment you take a modified system online, you don't get to complain if it gets banned due to the potential for cheating.

As for Sony...they probably learned that combating piracy would be difficult/impossible...around the time they tried to take a greater approach to combating it with PSP/Vita (which afaik had the opposite effect of encouraging piracy to a significant degree).

That's my attitude about it as well.

 

[M7L7NK7]

They can't patch mast1core. You all act like Sony are okay with it when they have other way more profitable parts of their company (as do Microsoft) that have nothing to do with video games whereas Nintendo don't.. so a few thousand people homebrewing isn't worth pursuing where as Nintendo with a console that has an exploit + modchips + emulation means they're going to protect themselves.

Do you really think it's about happy fun family times because it's all business first

 

[chrisrlink]

In the end, it wasn't even Nintendo issuing these "DMCA"

welp hopefully this guy get's tossed in jail for illegal dmca abuse (I just hope)

Post automatically merged: May 12, 2023

They can't patch mast1core. You all act like Sony are okay with it when they have other way more profitable parts of their company (as do Microsoft) that have nothing to do with video games whereas Nintendo don't.. so a few thousand people homebrewing isn't worth pursuing where as Nintendo with a console that has an exploit + modchips + emulation means they're going to protect themselves.

Do you really think it's about happy fun family times because it's all business first

if they (Sony) was seriously worried theyd put cturt on a lifetime NDA for mastercore when he announced it (nintendo actually would which is one reason why fusee was disclosed to nvidia and not nintendo)

 

[godreborn]

They can't patch mast1core. You all act like Sony are okay with it when they have other way more profitable parts of their company (as do Microsoft) that have nothing to do with video games whereas Nintendo don't.. so a few thousand people homebrewing isn't worth pursuing where as Nintendo with a console that has an exploit + modchips + emulation means they're going to protect themselves.

Do you really think it's about happy fun family times because it's all business first

Isn't the fact that it can't be patched more of a reason to remove the project? The v1 switches can't be patched either, can they? Your arguments make no sense.

 

[TomSwitch]

Isn't the fact that it can't be patched more of a reason to remove the project? The v1 switches can't be patched either, can they? Your arguments make no sense.

Six year ago the decision was made to allow unpatch switch to be shipped. That does not mean they are ok with piracy, it just means after the tradeoffs were considered it make sense for them to ship.

It sounded like Nintendo has engaged a third party to do enforcement and for this DMCA it’s automatic as far as N is concerned

 

[ertaboy356b]

Well, a lot of ps4 and 5 projects are also on github, including mast1c0re. Sony now has the right approach. They're a realist that knows piracy is going to happen, so they try to mitigate the damages. I don't care if you pirate, but I don't think exploited systems should be allowed online. That's all I care about. Nintendo has all but insured that their next console will be hacked up the ass again.

Except you can't mitigate switch piracy. PS4 is not fully hacked.

 

[godreborn]

Except you can't mitigate switch piracy. PS4 is not fully hacked.

Um, not all switches are hacked, same with ps4. If Nintendo paid hackers instead of suing them, they'd be able to patch exploits in time. Sony learned their lesson. Nintendo obviously hasn't.

 

[chrisrlink]

didnt you read my post someone admitted they sem
t fake dmca strikes because he's a nintendo cocksucker (Pardon my lingo but i call him what he is )

 

[ertaboy356b]

Um, not all switches are hacked, same with ps4. If Nintendo paid hackers instead of suing them, they'd be able to patch exploits in time. Sony learned their lesson. Nintendo obviously hasn't.

All switches are hackable nowadays, it's just a matter of choice. Meanwhile, you need an old PS4 in order to hack it. Now, the elephant in the room, switch games can be emulated. Even pirates distributes emulator + switch game pack because the PC version has denuvo.

 

[godreborn]

All ps4s are hackable as well. You can downgrade by dumping the sflash with a chip thanks to BwE.

 

[ertaboy356b]

All ps4s are hackable as well. You can downgrade by dumping the sflash with a chip thanks to BwE.

The difference is that PS4 didn't have the problem of day zero piracy.

If we have let's say a hypothetical PS4 simulator that can run games as good as the switch emulator, Sony will probably also act upon it. That's like giving your third party partners the middle finger.

 

[godreborn]

The difference is that PS4 didn't have the problem of day zero piracy.

If we have let's say a hypothetical PS4 simulator that can run games as good as the switch emulator, Sony will probably also act upon it. That's like giving your third party partners the middle finger.

Except in this case we're talking about a github repo. Like I said, there are many ps4/5 repos. If Sony was the same, why not go after goldhen? That allows piracy. In fact, there was someone on temp bragging about having over 2,000 games across 3 8tb drives.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Sony is still too busy counting their discman money to care if 7 people hack a ps4, Nintendo only has video game money coming in so they'll protect it vigorously especially when like mentioned it's easy to hack a switch or get a modchip

 

[godreborn]

I'm tired of this discussion. I'm not going to be dragged into an argument here. I couldn't take a nap earlier, because I was thinking about what I had said in a previous post. This all started with an opinion. I said I was disappointed. Big deal! I never questioned or attacked anyone for their opinions until someone said something about mine. From now on, I'm just going to start putting people on my ignore list. I don't have the time nor the energy for this ridiculous debate.

 

[JeepX87]

Um, not all switches are hacked, same with ps4. If Nintendo paid hackers instead of suing them, they'd be able to patch exploits in time. Sony learned their lesson. Nintendo obviously hasn't.

Nintendo started to pay to hackers for discover the exploits since late 3DS gen in 2016, however fusee exploit cannot be patched.

I haven't hack my PS4 yet because I'm on latest firmware and I haven't established yet, it means I don't know about risks consequences, such as console ban and account ban, but I use Save Wizard to resign the saves and inject the edits in save files.

My last hack with Sony console was PS3 in 2011 but stopped install CFW after save resigners came out.

Sony removed the USB save transfer in PS5 (for PS5 games), so it means save resigners for PS5 would be unlikely unless we find a way, such as hack in backup storage or jailbreak the console.

My hacking with Switch has been established and I know about risks and consequences, such as rely on ban protection feature that Atmosphere provided to send error codes to SD card instead of NAND and run CFW offline, but when compared to PS4, I don't know about what would happen and I would need to learn.

You are welcome to teach me about hacking with PS4.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

NO, I'M NOT GOING TO DROP MY ANNOYANCE TOWARDS SQUARE ENIX SHUTTING DOWN CHRONO RESURRECTION! AND IT'S NOT THE ONLY CHRONO SERIES FAN PROJECT THEY'VE SHUT DOWN, EITHER!

NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET