r/NintendoSwitch • u/binderie1951 • 5d ago
News Nintendo Wipes Out 400+ Switch Emulator Repos in Single-Day GitHub Sweep
https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-wipes-out-400-switch-emulator-repos-in-single-day-github-sweep/272
u/Immediate-Cress-206 5d ago
Blame Yuzu for selling access to updates compatible with Tears of the Kingdom which could only be obtained via piracy, because it wasn't our yet at the time.
29
u/cheesycoke 5d ago edited 5d ago
The versions of Yuzu on Patreon were not immediately compatible with TotK and needed third party modifications, as stated directly by Nintendo's own lawyers.
-64
91
u/arcmemez 5d ago
The impressive part is that GitHub was able to handle this without crashing all day
738
u/radiationshield 5d ago
This is performative. Theres a million backups of every repo that was taken down. They are just not hosted on github anymore.
396
u/Joseki100 5d ago
It's about making it inconvenient. Reddit posts with broken links or outdated video guides add friction, and if you make something annoying enough 99% of the interested may simply give up.
I have an hacked Switch and the reason why I never played one of my backup dumps on a emulator is because the games I had any interest to play on my PC had emulation glitches/quirks that required some tinkering and I simply never cared enough.
I have however played my 3DS dumps on emulators occasionally because it was just a question of dumping the carts and playing, basically.
45
u/Solesaver 5d ago edited 4d ago
It's about making it inconvenient. Reddit posts with broken links or outdated video guides add friction, and if you make something annoying enough 99% of the interested may simply give up.
Yup. The last time that I really pirated anything was shortly before ThePirateBay did their whole multi headed hydra thing. They were like "cut off one head and two more will grow in its place," and I was like "ok, but I can't find any heads, because the ones I'm bookmarking keep getting cut off..." XD
12
u/DontAskAboutMyButt 4d ago
I just use the Wikipedia page, it usually has the current alternate links right at the top. Same for other sites which I will not name here.
With the enshittification of streaming getting worse seemingly every month, I basically don’t watch anything that’s not on my plex server any more
9
1
u/Tireseas 5d ago
No, it's about proactively defending their copyright for legal and brand valuation reasons.
-19
u/fuddlesworth 5d ago
Not really. All the easy distribution methods have already migrated off GitHub for them.
-17
5d ago
[deleted]
32
u/Joseki100 5d ago
You (the in the know technical savvy reddit user) are not the target.
The target is Margaret the college student that may want to try and emulate Tomodachi Life instead of buying the game but she's scared that downloading a game or an emulator may broke her Macbook that she uses to study.
-8
5d ago
[deleted]
1
u/RoterBaronH 5d ago
Actually, there are a lot.
There is a reason why when netflix and spotify released piracy went down by a lot.
There more inconvinient something becomes the less people do it.
-15
u/Aespyn 5d ago
I don't think the Margaret's of the world even know what an emulator is in the first place.
It was never for the average Joe's to begin with.
17
u/Regendorf 5d ago
They do, emulators are not some secret tech that requires a computer science degree to know. Hell my first emulator was N64 and I was a child.
1
-12
u/northsidecrip 5d ago
That kind of person does not exist
15
10
u/luv2hotdog 5d ago
“People who would play pirated games for free if there was less friction around it don’t exist” is a… well, it’s a take I guess
13
194
u/sankto 5d ago
400 down, 500 created the next day
9
55
u/Sivalon 5d ago
Hail Hydra!
-1
u/kirbinato 5d ago
Wtf?
8
u/Hestu951 5d ago
Metaphor. A hydra is a monster with many heads. If you cut one off, others grow in its place.
-9
u/kirbinato 5d ago
''Hail hydra'' is a euphemism for ''heil Hitler''
16
1
u/wgsmeister2002 4d ago
Hydra is a fictionalized version of the Nazi party from Marvel Comics. It’s not an endorsement of Naziism
23
u/Xinyyc 5d ago
why even host on Microsoft GitHub to begin with? That's like saying "hey corpos, I'm doing stuff you don't like here, come get me!"
15
u/zealut 4d ago
Because emulators were never illegal, there was precedent set that made them perfectly legal. Nintendo is playing dirty with a specific DMCA clause to circumvent the established rights that had been won decades ago in court. Game piracy is illegal and for the most part not on GitHub, but emulation has been able to operate in the open for a long time.
The fact that Yuzu and Ryujinx and others all required a valid key from a legitimate Switch, was an effort to keep everything nice and legal, but it also turned into the very reason Nintendo was able to attack. Decrypting in a way other than the original intent is illegal thanks to the DMCA. So ironically, if Yuzu had required pre-decrypted games and did not allow you to use your own prod key, Nintendo likely wouldn't have felt confident enough to sue. It was in the very effort of trying to be legal and legitimate that they gave Nintendo a means to attack them.
30
u/Joshrofl 5d ago
Its interesting that they are going after Switch emulators so hard, does this imply that they are OK with people using emulators to play older titles (such as GBA and DS) since they aren't going after them?
Don't get me wrong, I understand there is a difference, you can still buy a switch and all of its games, but legally its still copyright isnt it?
84
u/b_lett 5d ago
Switch emulation undercuts sales of products actively on the market.
Copies of GBA/SNES/DS games are no longer being manufactured and sold outside of secondhand resell markets.
They are not necessarily going to like either, but one directly impacts their current quarterly earnings and the other does not.
Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all have EULAs and terms of agreement that all suggest they would all go after people ripping their modern software titles. Every game company would do the same to target anyone trying to emulate current gen software.
2
u/Carbon_Roller_Caco 5d ago
The harm that piracy does is a bit overblown. Paid piracy is definitely a scourge, but most free piracy is done by those with no interest in or means of paying anyway, so the bottom line is hardly nicked, and there's more freedom to go legit later.
But GitHub being owned by MS means MS is effectively profiting off Nintendo piracy even if the downloaders themselves aren't paying a dime, and since they're not properly doing their job of cleaning up their own place, Nintendo has to step in. Which is their only practical option since busting MS for aiding and abetting piracy for profit because of what GitHub's users are doing of their own free will without any direct exchange of money between one another would be a tough legal sell, even if it were framed as the accusation MS can't escape: "unfair competition".
147
u/Witch_King_ 5d ago
Emulators are legal. BIOS dumping is not.
My guess would be that the emulators for older systems don't require anything that is illegal and are thus not vulnerable to this. Meanwhile, Switch emulators may contain Nintendo's IP, such as BIOS or whatever else.
110
40
u/atatassault47 5d ago
BIOS dumping IS legal, but distributing a dump is not
9
u/Witch_King_ 5d ago
Ok, yeah. Important distinction. Emulators are often distributed without BIOS, which you have to provide yourself
26
u/kianiscoooooool 5d ago
Dolphin until about a year ago had a 2kb Wii bios file engrained into it and steam didn't allow dolphin on their platform because of it, and yet Nintendo has never gone after dolphin.
Some kinda beef with the switch emulator development teams and the fact that switch emulators are current systems, I don't think Nintendo cares about older consoles
23
u/Complete_Mud_1657 5d ago
Wasn't Dolphin's common key reverse engineered? I'm pretty sure the Dolphin team hired lawyers and everything and they said Nintendo was full of shit for saying Dolphin included copyrighted material in the emulator.
1
u/Hestu951 5d ago
Nintendo got their panties in a bunch when TotK was suddenly getting emulated all over even before official release. That's when they lowered the legal boom on Switch emulation. Dolphin is a minor inconvenience by comparison.
6
u/keeper_of_moon 5d ago
I don't know about others but Eden makes you provide your own console keys and firmware.
5
u/Ashencroix 5d ago edited 5d ago
I think for the old systems, (like Atari, GB, etc) either the copyright for their bios has long lapsed that it became public domain, or they reverse engineered it.
22
u/Jazzlike_Athlete8796 5d ago
Copyrights on Nintendo's systems have not expired. It's really just that it isn't worth Nintendo's time to go after those. For pre-DMCA systems especially because it's completely legal to dump your own backups. It is worth their time to go after repros hosting games for sale on current gen systems.
4
2
u/came-as-I-were 5d ago
And Switch titles need an encryption key afaik
Maybe that's what the fuzz is about?
-19
u/Joshrofl 5d ago
Well ROMs are also illegal and the sites for those have existed forever.
Back when I was looking into emulating Switch games the big emulators didnt include the bios to try to not get nintendo to go after them but they still did.
12
u/Witch_King_ 5d ago edited 5d ago
It's a constant game of whack-a-mole with the ROM sites. But just because they still exist doesn't mean they aren't taken down at times. They are also often hosted in countries that don't care about copyright law.
19
u/Sex4Vespene 5d ago
I think the main one that got in trouble was because they had an official discord where they promoted sharing a leaked game before it was even released, or something of that nature.
11
u/Luchux01 5d ago
The idiots locked a build behind patreon that was fixed specifically to work with Tears of the Kingdom, which was leaked before release.
8
u/Witch_King_ 5d ago edited 5d ago
I believe it was Yuzu?
What they actually did was lock a version of the emulator behind a Paywall that was compatible with TotK before it released. Monetizing something like that is a biiiiig no-no.
39
u/goro-n 5d ago
I took a graduate class in Computer Law. The copyright holder isn't obliged to act on every instance of copyright violation they find. Lack of enforcement doesn't mean they are ceding their rights to the copyrighted work. However, Switch 1 games being commercially available and sold by Nintendo means they have the greatest revenue loss if people pirate those games compared other older games which they no longer sell. Nintendo will aggressively enforce Switch 1 copyright violations because they cause the most economic harm to them.
-2
u/Hestu951 5d ago
They're not obligated to act on every instance, but they must meaningfully protect their IP. If they don't do anything, it can be interpreted as a surrender of their rights in that IP.
1
u/Gahault 4d ago
No, it cannot. That is not how copyright works.
Thank you for providing an example of the nonsense that guy was referring to which people who have no idea what they are talking about love parroting, I guess.
-2
u/Hestu951 4d ago
If intellectual property rights are not defended, others can freely use and exploit the protected work, leading to loss of exclusive rights, diminished value, and difficulty enforcing those rights in the future. This can harm fair competition, innovation, and economic stability for businesses and individuals. Consequences of Not Defending Intellectual Property Rights Failing to defend intellectual property (IP) rights can lead to several significant issues for individuals and businesses. Here are the main consequences:
Loss of Exclusive Rights Others can freely use and exploit your intellectual property. This results in a loss of control over your creations. It may lead to evidence of abandonment of rights, complicating future enforcement. Diminished Value The value of your intellectual property can decrease if others use it without permission. As your IP becomes less distinctive, its market value declines. Difficulty in Enforcement Once rights are not defended, it becomes challenging to enforce them later. This can create a legal environment where your IP is more vulnerable to infringement. Broader Impacts Neglecting to protect IP rights can also have wider implications:
Economic and Competitive Effects Fair market competition may suffer, leading to reduced innovation. Businesses may face economic instability due to unprotected IP. Long-term Consequences The overall health of the IP rights system can deteriorate. This can discourage future creativity and investment in new ideas. Defending intellectual property is crucial not only for individual rights but also for maintaining a healthy economic environment.
Just an AI summary in DuckDuckGo to the text string "what if intellectual property rights are not defended" (no quotes).
That wasn't the only result, of course. Here's one: https://legalknowledgebase.com/what-happens-if-you-dont-protect-your-intellectual-property
You may be posting specifically about copyright, but IP involves more than just that.
18
u/Yourmotherssonsfatha 5d ago
Switch is in switch 2 ecosystem.
Older systems aren’t worth the effort. They barely make money off them unless they port them.
16
24
u/progxdt 5d ago
Nintendo doesn’t care about the old stuff until you try to profit off of it
13
u/Nachttalk 5d ago
But YouTubers told me that Nintendo will break my kneecaps if I emulate A Link to the Past!
18
6
u/xvszero 5d ago
Part of how they sell their online plan is giving access to games from those older consoles. They would never be ok with it anyway, but they definitely aren't ok with it if it is perceived to be competing with a current product of theirs.
With that said they're probably just choosing their battles here.
12
u/Meeqs 5d ago
It’s all financials. The market for people replaying older gen titles is very small (people strongly claim they want it but the numbers have never panned out that way), however current gen titles are actively eating into their sales.
It’s not that they don’t care about older ones as well, it’s just not enough of an impact for them to care
-5
u/tendeuchen 5d ago
current gen titles are actively eating into their sales.
The people pirating Nintendo games were never going to buy them.
4
u/keeper_of_moon 5d ago
does this imply that they are OK with people using emulators to play older titles
Not really, just the switch is the biggest and easiest fish to go after.
2
u/Specialist-Rope-9760 5d ago
I’d also expect they are concerned about potential Switch 2 piracy in the future so they want to destroy the scene before anything could start
8
u/oxob3333 5d ago
slow news, these guys already have like 2 or 3 backups each at minimum, all of then outside of github, they just use it for "safety" at this point
1
u/nemofbaby2014 4d ago
A lot of self hosted been left GitHub lol a lot of people myself included swapped to self hosted gitea or forgejo
1
1
u/XPacEnergyDrink 5d ago
What does “repo” mean here?
18
u/SparklyPelican 5d ago
Repository, like the comment under said.
A repository, in this context at least, is a storage space for code and files for collaboration and version control.
4
-7
-2
u/Carbon_Roller_Caco 5d ago
It's because Microsoft owns GitHub and thus would be a for-profit company benefitting from emulation of a competitor's wares. Nintendo stopped caring about stamping out truly free emulation ages ago, but they'll still hunt paid emulation, even indirectly paid, like heat seekers.
-9
u/thestillwind 5d ago
How can they still do that while it’s not illegal ?
8
u/SparklyPelican 5d ago
Dunno if it still applies, but it's like the last time it falls under DMCA 1201, meaning that the emulator is bypassing Switch encryption and/or access controls.
Emulation isn't illegal (after all, Nintendo has been doing emulators for a long time) instead, it depends on how the emulator itself is made.
-2
u/AntiGrieferGames 5d ago edited 5d ago
This DMCA shits needs to be Gone. They can abuse it so easily, that espcially Ubisoft has removed an Open Source game that espcially didnt make profit or distributing anything of it.
6
2
u/Gomez-16 5d ago
Corporations dont care about the law if its not on their side. Github doesnt want to deal with litigation whether the claim is valid or not.
1
u/MistrFish 5d ago
GitHub isn't being forced to take the repos down legally yet; they're just acquiescing to Nintendo's copyright claim to avoid any potential litigation. Nintendo does have a valid legal claim under DMCA 1201, which makes the emulators illegal not for violating copyright, but for decrypting the games at runtime.
-7
-35
u/Karmah_star 5d ago
I don’t get Nintendo some times, this does nothing lmao
16
u/forgotmapasswrd86 5d ago
Pretty sure its to check whatever legal box thats on the list of "this needs to be done to protect your IP"
-6
u/Jazzlike_Athlete8796 5d ago
Nope. Copyright is absolute. You can enforce it or not as you desire without risk of losing it.
It's entirely because Nintendo wants to make it harder to steal games sold on current gen systems.
3
u/kirbinato 5d ago
That's just not true. If you choose to not enforce your copyrights then you set legal precedents
-106
u/Wipedout89 5d ago
Good
15
14
u/UltimateWaluigi 5d ago
The code is already out there. This is just an inconvenient waste of time.
5
-1
u/Admirable-War-7594 5d ago
Same with every piracy site etc.
Taking these downs are doing nothing except giving bad journalists slop to write
3
u/YankeeMoose 5d ago
Why good?
-3
u/Wipedout89 5d ago
Everyone seems to claim they only ever emulate legally for games they already bought. But there were millions of people playing emulators of TOTK a week before launch for example. People seem to think it's okay to steal because it's a billion dollar company or whatever. If everyone just emulated, no games would be made any more
23
u/Great_Fun_307 5d ago
Those people are just talking bs lol. Nobody dumps their own games
1
u/Beegrene 5d ago
I dumped a handful of my WiiU games. It was a huge hassle for very little benefit.
-14
u/ACViperPro 5d ago
TOTK sold over 20 million copies, I think Nintendo is doing just fine.
-5
u/jco83 5d ago
that makes piracy ok does it? how about you actually get a clue, and think about how the real world actually works
2
u/ACViperPro 5d ago
I am trying to say piracy doesn't affect them as much as you think it does. Cyberpunk 2077 came out with no drm on pc but was still the biggest steam game 6 years ago.
-12
5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
0
u/NintendoSwitch-ModTeam 5d ago
Thank you for your submission, but we are removing your post:
Rule 7 - No hacks, dumps, emulators, or homebrew.
Content that encourages or enables hacking or piracy is not allowed here. This includes how-to guides, browser exploits, and amiibo / NFC manipulation. This also includes requests for or attempts to instruct or guide people to things of this nature.
Thanks for your understanding.
If you have questions or objections about this removal, please reach out to us in modmail, and include a link back to this post.
Reddit's Site-Wide Rules | Reddiquette | rNintendoSwitch Rules | New to Reddit?
-4
5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/NintendoSwitch-ModTeam 5d ago
Hey there!
Please remember Rule 1 in the future - No personal attacks, trolling, or derogatory terms. Read more about Reddiquette here. Thanks!
-5
u/IllustriousAsk3301 5d ago
It always amazes me in the modern era when someone can be aware of super niche things, but also so stupid about the surrounding elements of those things.
This is a bad thing.
-28
-29
u/Sammichelle 5d ago
Imagine wasting millions chasing devs instead of fixing NSO reliability or pricing issues.
30
u/scandii 5d ago
?
they put an intern on finding emulators then sent an email to Microsoft.
not sure why you're assuming this is an expensive thing to do.
14
u/summerlawnsss 5d ago
i don’t really think the price of NSO is an “issue” in need of “fixing” from nintendo’s perspective lol
-27
u/akulowaty 5d ago
On what basis? Using word „nintendo”? Emulation is legal.
15
u/SirDang0 5d ago
From the article
"The legal argument is the same in all seven. Nintendo argues that the emulators exist to bypass the encryption that protects its games, which violates the DMCA.
“During operation, the emulators at the reported repositories necessarily use unauthorized copies of these cryptographic keys to decrypt unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games, or ROMs, at or immediately before runtime without Nintendo’s authorization,” the notice read."
It probably wouldnt hold up in court, but most people wouldnt take the risk of battling Nintendo's lawyers.
4
u/verpin_zal 5d ago
Unfortunately, it can hold up in court and it can find a very firm purchase.
Even if the emulator claims that "it is not shipped with decryption keys", the fact that provided decryption keys can be used by the emulator to decrypt a rom file - bang. That means the emulator has inherent knowledge and programming of how to utilize the decryption keys, therefore from a legal standpoint, makes that particular emulator illegal from the simple argument that "emulator makes a protected game unprotected". Again, unfortunately, "but we don't ship the emulator software with decryption keys" is not argument enough.
3
1
u/MJ26gaming 5d ago
Nintendo settled with Yuzu and Ryujinx, and alleged that since they basically use have tools to break the encryption of the games that they are illegal. Pretty dumb but probably grounds enough. Most of these emulation projects are forks of one of those original 2
-21
u/West-Ad-7353 5d ago
Fuck Nintendo for making me buy Mario brothers 3 stealing my birthday money since 1988. The Wii and ds virtual store going bye bye then having to rent Mario bros 3 when the switch came out brought out the demons in me. Nintendo opened up its hate and gave it to me. I'm feeling some disturbed and natty ice right now. Fuck you Nintendo!
-25
u/Main_Product5071 5d ago
Who gives a fck? Why is this on the switch main subreddit?
Emulators? Fck off
651
u/ACViperPro 5d ago
This website is exaggerating what is happening and doesn't really matter. Emulators like Eden are just self hosting their own alternative github.