Dolphin Emulator team officially abandons planned Steam release

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Almost two months ago, the team behind the Dolphin Emulator announced that they had put their planned Steam release on hold indefinitely following a cease and desist order from Nintendo, but did not cancel their plans outright, instead promising to review their options and come back with a more detailed response in the future. In a new blog post today, the Dolphin team explained what happened in more detail and what this means for the future of Dolphin.

The blog post begins by giving a more detailed account of what happened back in May. Valve's legal department initiated contact with Nintendo to inform them of Dolphin's upcoming release on Steam; in response, Nintendo of America requested Valve block the release, citing the anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Valve then told the Dolphin team they needed Nintendo's approval before they would allow the emulator to release on Steam. The Dolphin team believes, given Nintendo's long history of fighting emulation, that this will be impossible and have officially cancelled all plans to release Dolphin on Steam.

Much of the conversation surrounding Dolphin's removal from Steam revolved around the Wii Common Key. This is what the Wii uses to decrypt its games, and has been publicly available online (and in Dolphin's code) for more than 15 years. However, Nintendo cited the use of "proprietary cryptographic keys" in its letter to Valve, claiming that because the "Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization" it constitutes a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA.

This section of the DMCA states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title" and also prohibits the trafficking of any technology that "is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." In this case, Nintendo believes that the encryption on Wii games counts as a technological measure to control access to a copyrighted work, and that Dolphin's primary purpose is to circumvent those measures through decryption.

However, the Dolphin team is confident that this will not affect Dolphin in any way going forward. They argue that Dolphin's primary purpose is to "recreate the GameCube and Wii hardware as software, and to provide the means for a user to interact with this emulated environment" and that only a very small portion of their code relates to circumvention. GameCube games have no encryption on them, and Dolphin is also used to develop game mods or homebrew games.

They also believe they are covered by the reverse-engineering exemptions laid out in the same anti-circumvention provisions. The reverse engineering exemption states that it is okay to circumvent these control measures to enable "interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs."

"Dolphin is an independently created computer program that is circumventing Wii disc encryption for interoperability with Wii software," reads Dolphin's blog post. "According to this exemption, this does not constitute infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 1201."

As such, the Dolphin team will not remove the Wii Common Key from future releases, and firmly believe Dolphin is not in any legal danger. They will continue to develop and improve Dolphin, and even plan to implement some features intended for the Steam version; namely, a Big Picture GUI mode that is fully usable with a controller.
 

SylverReZ

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I think Nintendo did it right this time. I would have NEVER paid money for a Wii/Gamecube emulator that lets you play ISOs that you can download for FREE on the Internet.
You don't have to use an emulator, just saying. :rofl2:

Dolphin has a built-in auto updater since... a while ago. You can also force an update check in the Help menu.

View attachment 384560
Now they need to somehow add the ability to add your own keys.
 
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raging_chaos

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Not to mention that either way, there's a very good chance that Dolphin would eventually cease to exist, even if the dev team were to win the theoretical case

In its current form yes. If a ruling were made declaring part or the entire cryptographic key illegal to use or possess it would impact Wii and other emulators that decrypt games on the fly. They could switch to using decrypted game images, but any website or server hosting decrypted games would get DMCA takedown notices and legal threats. That ruling could also prevent emulators from allowing users to input their own key since its only usage would be to facilitate piracy of protected games not reverse engineering and possessing the key would be considered illegal.

This is where I really agree with smf, Dolphin brought too much attention onto themselves by needlessly trying to release on something as public as the Steam platform and they ended up doing themselves a disservice. This should also serve as a warning to any other emus that keep trying to release on other storefronts like the Xbox. RetroArch dodges all of that because it's just a front end that launches other emulators and media players via cores, it's not an emulator itself.
 
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Valve initiated the request because of the common keys, but then again whether these keys existed or not would not make a difference cause the outcome would be the same. It's Dolphin team mistake first and Valve second.
 

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Almost two months ago, the team behind the Dolphin Emulator announced that they had put their planned Steam release on hold indefinitely following a cease and desist order from Nintendo, but did not cancel their plans outright, instead promising to review their options and come back with a more detailed response in the future. In a new blog post today, the Dolphin team explained what happened in more detail and what this means for the future of Dolphin.

The blog post begins by giving a more detailed account of what happened back in May. Valve's legal department initiated contact with Nintendo to inform them of Dolphin's upcoming release on Steam; in response, Nintendo of America requested Valve block the release, citing the anti-circumvention provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Valve then told the Dolphin team they needed Nintendo's approval before they would allow the emulator to release on Steam. The Dolphin team believes, given Nintendo's long history of fighting emulation, that this will be impossible and have officially cancelled all plans to release Dolphin on Steam.

Much of the conversation surrounding Dolphin's removal from Steam revolved around the Wii Common Key. This is what the Wii uses to decrypt its games, and has been publicly available online (and in Dolphin's code) for more than 15 years. However, Nintendo cited the use of "proprietary cryptographic keys" in its letter to Valve, claiming that because the "Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization" it constitutes a violation of the anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA.

This section of the DMCA states that "no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title" and also prohibits the trafficking of any technology that "is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." In this case, Nintendo believes that the encryption on Wii games counts as a technological measure to control access to a copyrighted work, and that Dolphin's primary purpose is to circumvent those measures through decryption.

However, the Dolphin team is confident that this will not affect Dolphin in any way going forward. They argue that Dolphin's primary purpose is to "recreate the GameCube and Wii hardware as software, and to provide the means for a user to interact with this emulated environment" and that only a very small portion of their code relates to circumvention. GameCube games have no encryption on them, and Dolphin is also used to develop game mods or homebrew games.

They also believe they are covered by the reverse-engineering exemptions laid out in the same anti-circumvention provisions. The reverse engineering exemption states that it is okay to circumvent these control measures to enable "interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs."

"Dolphin is an independently created computer program that is circumventing Wii disc encryption for interoperability with Wii software," reads Dolphin's blog post. "According to this exemption, this does not constitute infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 1201."

As such, the Dolphin team will not remove the Wii Common Key from future releases, and firmly believe Dolphin is not in any legal danger. They will continue to develop and improve Dolphin, and even plan to implement some features intended for the Steam version; namely, a Big Picture GUI mode that is fully usable with a controller.
Dolphin doesn't need steam, it'll always be primarily for enthusiasts and for little else. Website and word of mouth is enough.
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Emulators are often free, but some you have to pay for which I think is rather silly.
Development costs,
"If you're good at something, never do it for free." - The Joker
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Yeah. I didn't even know that Dolphin was trying to release on Steam until I saw the news that Valve delisted it. That said, even if I did know, my response would've still been the same, which was; "Really? What did they expect would be Nintendo's reaction to a well-known emulator attempt to push itself into mainstream media?" Followed by expecting the obvious complaints from people who hate Nintendo for simply breathing.
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Not to mention that either way, there's a very good chance that Dolphin would eventually cease to exist, even if the dev team were to win the theoretical case, simply because of the dev team being bled dry through legal fees. Best case scenario: they become a "martyr for the cause", and someone else has to pick up the pieces of the Gamecube/Wii emulation space. There is no outcome where Dolphin would benefit in the slightest, should the issue end up being brought to court.
GoFundMe for legal fees.
 

ChronosNotashi

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GoFundMe for legal fees.
Oh, yes. I very sure hundreds of people who use emulators today are just dying to send hundreds of USD, if not their entire life savings, to an emulator dev to cover the ever-growing legal fees that would build up over the course of a long, drawn-out court case. The "drawn-out" part being intended to drain as much of the emulator dev's legal funding as possible, especially if it starts cutting into anyone's living wages just to "stay in the game" (and especially if Nintendo catches wind that the defendant is using a third party to secure funding).
 

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Oh, yes. I very sure hundreds of people who use emulators today are just dying to send hundreds of USD, if not their entire life savings, to an emulator dev to cover the ever-growing legal fees that would build up over the course of a long, drawn-out court case. The "drawn-out" part being intended to drain as much of the emulator dev's legal funding as possible, especially if it starts cutting into anyone's living wages just to "stay in the game" (and especially if Nintendo catches wind that the defendant is using a third party to secure funding).
People paid the cemu devs just to have the privilege of using the latest and greatest… Teknoparrot also has a patreon… You sincerely underestimate the emulation communities…
 

ChronosNotashi

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People paid the cemu devs just to have the privilege of using the latest and greatest… Teknoparrot also has a patreon… You sincerely underestimate the emulation communities…
Honestly, better to underestimate what an emulator dev is capable of in the legal department and be pleasantly surprised with a win that doesn't kill the emulator in the process, than to overestimate and be sorely disappointed when their legal funding ends up not being as endless with a GoFundMe as one would want to believe. I would not be surprised if there were those here who are quick to forget about the emulators that died off due to a legal battle, despite the emulator devs winning their cases. Against Sony, if you're willing to believe that.
 

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All I can say is Nintendo is a bunch of massive cucks.

In any case, the crux of the issue really has nothing to do with Nintendo. Hence my earlier post.

Dolphin is circumventing the encryption on Wii games. It doesn't really matter if the common key is included, or if it's brute-forced. The DMCA has provisions against the very act of decrypting without authorization.
 
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Dolphin already has a Flatpak release and it isn’t rocket science installing something on Windows. Not really sure what use case the Steam release would be for
 

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Dolphin already has a Flatpak release and it isn’t rocket science installing something on Windows. Not really sure what use case the Steam release would be for

Like mentioned earlier, it would have provided automatic updates and Steam Cloud support, which is useful for Steam Deck users and anyone who plays on multiple devices. Not having to set these up manually is the main appeal. Same reasons why anyone would use other emulators or other non-game software on Steam.
 

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Yeah, I've had Dolphin Emulator installed since day one. I guess the publicity is good and the drama is mildly intetesting because this is an odd situation. *shrug*

Desktop mode -> terminal -> $: flatpak install dolphin-emu

Manually add the launcher to Steam if that tickles your fancy.


I think that's a moot point and not really accurate. I think the thing is just that Valve can't ship this one piece of libre software with SteamOS but it also seems like Nintendo doesn't quite understand.
I may be mistaken. oh well. I'm kind of over it already. Lol
 

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I've always said that Dolphin should've never been proposed to be on the Steam storefront in the first place especially when emulation doesn't need any more notoriety than its gotten so far to be in the crosshairs of these greedy litigious publishers/console manufacturers.
 
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I think a few things that made them angry was for one Skyrim outselling Skyward Sword. Not to mention the Wii U was also a massive failure.

Ever since that they have earned the name NintenDMCA.
 

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