[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.

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[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.

 

[Kioku]

Nintendo really grasping for straws here. Wonder when they’ll go after Retroarch.

 

[scoobydude51]

This was completely expected. Plus Nintendo is now inching closer and closer towards shutting down emulators, no matter if the code was legally written or not.

Post automatically merged: May 27, 2023

Nintendo really grasping for straws here. Wonder when they’ll go after Retroarch.

They won’t because they would have to target the actual Core DLC that emulates Nintendo devices.

 

[Kioku]

This was completely expected. Plus Nintendo is now inching closer and closer towards shutting down emulators, no matter if the code was legally written or not.

Post automatically merged: May 27, 2023

They won’t because they would have to target the actual Core DLC that emulates Nintendo devices.

People also believed that emulators couldn’t be touched, but here we are…

 

[cluesagi]

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

 

[CeeDee]

wait wait there's a new thread and no one's posted "it's always morally correct" yet??? i better get on this

 

[scoobydude51]

People also believed that emulators couldn’t be touched, but here we are…

That’s because it’s been untouchable since the Bleem v. Sony ruling.

I feel like Nintendo wants that ruling overturned.

 

[Pickle_Rick]

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

If you're using EmuDeck it's as simple as downloading one file and double clicking it. It's also available from Flathub in the discover app. Zero inconvenience incurred. Lmao.

 

[Ryab]

View attachment 374118​

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 and says it is dated today, May 26. It reads:



It is worth noting that, as of now, it appears the DMCA notice only affects Dolphin Emulator's release on Steam. It is still available to download on the developer's website.

Shocked that the Dolphin team tried this to begin with lol. I don't see the appeal of running an emulator through steam, when emulators commonly require file access for use, but sure.

 

[halfashark]

wait wait there's a new thread and no one's posted "it's always morally correct" yet??? i better get on this

shitposting aside i say it because even on places dedicated to piracy you always have that group of nintendo dorks who insist they're only here for translation patches or unreleased games which makes their piracy justifiable unlike the rest of us unwashed masses.

 

[Wolfy]

Honestly fuck Nintendo sometimes, when they could solve all their issues by not blue-balling the community surrounding games that are quite literally unobtainable except by large sums of cash and just re-release said games or(and its an obvious "or" since I understand IP and license issues are present in many of their past era games) just allow this stuff. They aren't being hurt by it, and this only angers people towards them as a company.

On another note, I don't know why the Retroarch/Dolphin teams decided to put their launchers on Steam, especially since its the sort of thing that would prompt some type of retaliation you'd assume(Retroarch at least on Xbox's store). If people are interested then they'll surely find their pages without much issue.

 

[SamuraiErikku]

Nintendo is jealous of Emulator Developers since they do a better job at developing emulation than Nintendo, Same goes with the Homebrew Communities that do a better job at preservation & development tools than Nintendo does, let's not forget Decompiling Games as well & looking at the people that Decompile Nintendo Games they do a better job than Nintendo. Like I said it's jealousy in Nature & want to destroy the Independent Developers with Bureaucratic Bullshit Laws they should be teaming up with these people for better development not these Horseshit DMCA which is a lot of Douchebaggery Moronic Corporate Act.

Emulators will still be a thing & Nintendo will keep getting more jealous. I'm suspicious of Nintendo going after Programs are they making a Nintendo Computer OS on PC or Laptops and yet they keep going after all these emulators & homebrew applications this is speculation on my part however I can be wrong? Still Fuck Nintendo for going after these Emulators, They do make great games however their business practices are shitty when it comes down to this this includes not releasing every video game in their library & re-releasing them too especially taking down their digital stores too.

The people that emulate Nintendo Servers that can't play officially on Nintendo Servers anymore are the most passionate Nintendo Fans for keeping these games alive they really do a service unlike Nintendo doing a disservice to their own company axing their own games & servers. There are people out their that play Nintendo Wii, Wii U, NDS, DSi, 2DS/3DS, and older consoles and give them new life.

Nintendo can't fix certain game servers of their own & yet they want to update their 3DS'es to prevent you from playing older games that the shop they shut down is purely lazy on Nintendo's part. This encourages people to download your shit for free & if you don't like it then re-release your fucking games so you can profit from them if you care about your IP, When I do talk about this I also do apply these other gaming companies like Sony, Microsoft, etc. that do the shame shenanigans as Nintendo however with their own criticisms on their flaws too. No Gaming Company is a Scared Cow!

 

[CeeDee]

shitposting aside i say it because even on places dedicated to piracy you always have that group of nintendo dorks who insist they're only here for translation patches or unreleased games which makes their piracy justifiable unlike the rest of us unwashed masses.

people having to constantly justify why they're morally superior for hacking / emulating / pirating is stupid. who cares. just go play the dang video games

 

[noxi]

Shocked that the Dolphin team tried this to begin with lol. I don't see the appeal of running an emulator through steam, when emulators commonly require file access for use, but sure.

Save game cloud sync. Also, just because you have a program on Steam doesn't mean you can't access your files.

 

[AngryCinnabon]

Save game cloud sync. Also, just because you have a program on Steam doesn't mean you can't access your files.

Might be worth mentioning that emudeck devs are trying to figure out some sort of cloud saving function.

 

[Jayro]

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

((The piano: ))

 

[Ryab]

Save game cloud sync. Also, just because you have a program on Steam doesn't mean you can't access your files.

Just seems unneeded more than anything.

 

[ZeroFX]

Steam deck will still be the superior switch, Nintendo.

 

[Mike_77712]

Playing TOTK early will never not be worth it

 

[8BitWonder]

Average DMCA abuse moment