The video game emulator Yuzu circumvents encryption on Nintendo Switch games, making them available on other platforms like personal computers and mobile phones in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, according to a lawsuit from Nintendo of America Inc.
"NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator.
Notes 1 million copies of Tears of the Kingdom downloaded prior to game's release; says Yuzu's Patreon support doubled during that time. Basically arguing that that is proof that Yuzu's business model helps piracy flourish."
I have a .zip containing the latest early access version of Yuzu, for Windows and Linux. It includes the emulator, all required decryption keys, the latest firmware for game compatibility, a tool to automatically download mods, and a convenient guide on how to acquire ROMs.
I will forever distribute this .zip in a non-limited download link to anyone who asks me. Forever. You can PM me today and I'll send it, you can PM me in 5 years and I'll send it. Please feel free to do so. It's not illegal to share where I live, so I'll share. But do it via PMs, as to avoid causing trouble to the community.
Again, forever. If you're reading this in the future, unless I'm dead (my mental health is a bit shaky), I'm sending you a fully functional Yuzu pack.
I had no interest on playing switch games, but I do have a problem with authority overstepping. I'll help you stick it to the man and evangelize more people on the ways of the Corsair. Pm'ed
YuzuModDownloader will detect games in your library, check the built in repositories, download the mods and apply them automatically. Do keep in mind it enables all mods by default, so make sure to go to the game's settings and disable the ones you don't need.
There are so many things that add up over time. I wouldn’t say I hate them just yet, but I‘be stopped buying their products. The way they go about their business just rubs me the wrong way. If the only way to try to communicate that is disengaging from any of their offerings, be it games or the new switch. Yea, I’m out.
This is an excellent comment! All these haters up in here but seldom few list why. I think it's because their arguments wouldn't hold up, so they don't voice them. Just pure rage (useless)
I feel like a large number of the people pirating wouldn't have bought the game even if it was their only option. Then there's people who pirated and bought the game both. Unrealized profit is not the same as losing money.
they either have to say NSO/Nes/Snes classic are not emulation, or admit their definition of emulators is not the universally accepted definition of it, else Nintendo just Claimed Nintendo is serving up and charging for an unlawful service that is NSO.
I really want a real explanation on how I’ve caused Nintendo financial harm by format shifting my legally owned games. Especially considering I pay for NSO. At some point there has to be precedent that a pirated download does not equal a lost sale and that the individuals are responsible for the infringement and not the tools.
What's more, is that from these passages, it sounds like Nintendo even wants backups of games you have lawfully purchased to constitute copyright violation and made illegal (because they have to bypass encryption, therefore violating DMCA). I'm not fluent in legalese though, so correct me if I'm misinterpreting:
These passages imply the writers of them lack basic computer literacy and don't even understand Nintendo's own systems.
"copied the game ROMs into Yuzu" Yuzu is not a VM or other container and the ROMs are simply stored on disk in their original dumped form... Yuzu doesn't "store" or "contain" any games.
"any copy not on an authorized cartridge" LOL! What about games downloaded from your own digital marketplace, then?
What about a game you downloaded from Nintendo eShop and stored on an external SD card, which is a standard and well supported storage method on Switch? Is that SD card an "authorized cartridge"?
The authorized cartridge thing would hopefully be ignored due to several other times Nintendo tried to stop developers like Tengen from bypassing their licensing system and developing their own carts for the NES (you know those weird ones that were usually blue or black? Those were "illegal" in Nintendo's eyes but they lost every single case they took against them to try and stop them from being made).
“copied the game ROMs into Yuzu” Yuzu is not a VM or other container and the ROMs are simply stored on disk in their original dumped form… Yuzu doesn’t “store” or “contain” any games.
ROMs are indeed copied "into Yuzu". They must be loaded into Yuzu's memory in order for Yuzu to execute their code or render their assets. In copyright law, even loading something to memory constitutes a "copy".
Also, almost every emulator is a VM; do you think those ARM instructions are running on your x86 processor and its desktop OS kernel natively?
Ah corporate Lawyer BS, pointing out what they want to be true and not pointing out the other. ROMs are legal under existing Copywrite laws under archival laws in the USA (117) and backup laws in Canada (29.24). The Americans have a bit more of a restricted way of using their archives, but that's not needs to be argued here, as it appears that Nintendo is blaming Yuzu for actions of the general consumer. It'll be like blaming your Network provider for allowing a user to download a movie, both legally and illegally, thus they should be punished for both actions.
I also love that Nintendo isn't not stating it's illegal here, just that it's infringing because it's not authorized.
Nintendo is blaming Yuzu for actions of the general consumer
If you read the dmca, that's something you can do. Making tools that enable others to break copyright protection is specifically disallowed. Which is why it's one of the more insidious copyright laws
I remember a video of SomeOrdinaryGamers talking about a case where a company (I think it was Nintendo) was arguing that making a copy of games you own yourself should be illegal. The whole case was just that. Probably something from the last 4 months or so.
Anyway, regarding 124, a judge with a working brain would say "There's nothing here stating that it was Yuzu who allowed, or facilitated, anyone to obtain said reproductions."
The copies were not obtained through Yuzu. Yuzu is not a site where the roms are, or even links to any of them. Sure, it exists solely to emulate nintendo's current hardware, but that's not the problem.
Sigh. If only law and justice worked based on factual evidence and logic, instead of interpretative contortionism...
Don't know how good a case Nintendo has here unless it can prove that Yuzu itself contains proprietary code that allows the ROMs to be played. If the decryption is being done on the ROMs' end, then that's just another reason to go after the ones dumping and distributing the ROMs. Nintendo couldn't even substantially stop Dolphin, and Dolphin actually had a decryption key straight from Wii firmware in it. Good luck to them, but they're likely going for the wrong legal target. Taking down what ROM sites they can (which would legally be a lot easier than the emulator makers) is just getting rid of drops in the ocean of the ROMs' spread, but they're the target Nintendo should be going after.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Yuzu has any proprietary code. Folks have to go to other websites to download the Switch firmware and keys needed to play games.
That's not really enough to be not in violation. For example, vlc can't natively decrypt blurays. This is because both its not bundled with the decryption library nor the decryption keys. Vlc out of the box can not decrypt blurays.
If yuzu can, if you provide some keys, eh that might be enough for them to win. It's certainly not enough to push nintendo away. You unfortunately need to be extremely careful around the dmca stuff.
DMCA § 1201 is the anti-circumvention clause. It makes it illegal to circumvent DRM, no copyrighted content reproduction needed.
Yuzu may have defenses if they clean-room broke the encryption, but it's a fight that will be difficult because the statute itself is unreasonable - essentially outlawing using knowledge to circumvent access controls. To those of us who know about this statute and its history in attempt to lock-down content, it's a serious scumbag move because they may actually win. The statute is terrible and has been since it was enacted in 1998.
They also seem to be asserting a secondary liability argument - i.e., the infringement of users is Yuzu's responsibility because Yuzu allegedly facilitated piracy, or recklessly moved forwarded when it knew or had reason to know it would be used as such. This is harder to prove.
Even if Nintendo doesn't win the suit (but they may win it), they already "won" by filing because this will have a chilling effect on legitimate emulation.
There are two things in conflict that apply to Dolphin, and in general to post-DRM console emulators:
It's illegal to create or distribute a device which circumvents DRM.
It's legal to ignore DMCA restrictions for the sole purpose of making things interoperable, like running software on machines it wasn't originally created for when you'd be able to run it on the machine it was created for.
The wording in the legislation is sufficiently vague that it's not obvious whether it's illegal to create or distribute a device that circumvents DRM for the sole purpose of interoperability. If a case goes to court, it could set a precedent that has to be applied in the future, or it could be settled out of court to avoid setting a precedent, and so far, there's no case law setting a precedent.
When Nintendo asked Valve not to allow Dolphin onto Steam, despite what some people were saying, the decryption key was known to be there, and the Dolphin team had legal advice that it was reasonable to expect that the interoperability exceptions had more power than the DRM circumvention restriction. The decryption key is a so-called illegal number, but these are probably not actually illegal, and you can see several examples on the Wikipedia page about them. Nintendo ended up taking no action against Dolphin, and it wouldn't have been a good case to try and set a precedent with as there weren't obvious damages now it's been so long since the Wii stopped being sold, and because the Dolphin team have historically been so diligent about stamping out discussion of piracy in their official communities, making it hard to argue that it's intended as a DRM circumvention device rather than an interoperability tool. Also, Dolphin's never taken donations, easily covering all their costs with just basic ads on their site.
Yuzu's a bit of an easier target. For a start, it's got a Patreon, and that makes it easier to paint its developers in a bad light as they're getting money (as well as meaning there's actual money to recover). They've also got data to back up the suggestion that lots and lots of Yuzu users are pirating games instead of just playing games they've already got a disk copy of. In a sensible world where laws are applied fairly, there's an easy argument that hoops to jump through like requiring the user to provide Switch firmware show they're not trying to make piracy easy, but it's not like Yuzu will be able to muster up enough money for lawyers to match what Nintendo will be spending.
The worst thing that could come out of this is a decision that interoperability isn't an excuse for circumventing DRM under any circumstances, as that'll have serious consequences for a bunch of other projects, and Nintendo are likely to want to push for this precedent to be set rather than accepting an out-of-court settlement. On the other hand, Nintendo could mess up and get the opposite precedent set, although if it looks like that's going to happen, they're likely to drop the suit.
Nope, you have to obtain the decryption keys yourself - I spent hours hunting around online for a set of console keys and firmware dump to get the emulator working on my steam deck.
If you own a moddable switch you can dump the keys legally, but I don't plan on doing that any time soon.
Typical Nintendo move. So sad to see Yuzu possibly going down this way. Even looks like Nintendo might win this one. I'm just gonna download the entire source from GitHub just in case.
I wish this would just go full hydra mode if it goes down though. Start popping up new anonymous accounts releasing the source code everywhere.
Yuzu may go down, but Nintendo hasn't learned the lessons of the Streisand effect and the hydra effect. The code is open source. 10 more projects will pop up the day after Yuzu goes down (IF it goes down.)
As much as I dislike Nintendo and wish Yuzu devs all the best I'd like to point out that Bowser wasn't some innocent guy who was caught by big bad company - Moonie has a video that goes into specifics about his involvement with a pirate enterprise worth a shitton of money.
Other than that yeah, I hope they can survive this situation. I wonder if Ryujinx devs are next.
Isn't moonie the dude who shit talked Karl Jobst and ended up deleting his video because Jobst called him out on how wrong he was on pretty much everything and how terrible his research was. Like literally just watched a couple YouTube videos level research? Don't know if I can trust someone who would fuck up THAT bad. I get people make mistakes sometimes but that's just complete negligence especially for someone with an audience that big.
They are taking his income for life, that's an insane overreach specially for a big successful company like Nintendo, and it didn't matter since the actual team behind it is back selling flashcarts that are even better than having to solder a chip.
Brother.. Nintendo's net income last year was 3.1 BILLION dollars. There is no "fighting Nintendo".
Let's be real homie. Yuzu is done. Downvote me all you want after I post this.
As much as we all love Yuzu, the dev's had to have known this was coming.
I don't want to be one of those dudes that keeps harping on the "Nintendo should be FOR preserving old games". We all know Nintendo will continue to kick down ANYONE so much as glancing in their I.P. 's general direction.
Nintendo does what you Nintendon't want. Always.
Extreme capitalism stifles and suffocates innovation and preservation.
They didn't expect it to happen because of all of the landmark rulings in the past that emulators are inherently not illegal unless they provide bios to the end user. The only reason why Nintendo is acting now instead of years ago when Yuzu first hit the scene is because it's in basically a fully working state now and they somehow verified that 1,000,000 people downloaded TOTK. I suspect far more copies of BOTW and Mario Odyssey were downloaded prior.
Extreme capitalism stifles and suffocates innovation and preservation.
It's an inherent contradiction of capitalist competition. Somehow everyone is supposed to be competitive but noone is supposed to win for capitalism to "work". Otherwise it's considered a monopoly and "anti-competitive".
I kind of doubt this because Yuzu doesn't actually have any of the cryptographic key material that Nintendo could have a valid reason to sue over. They only offer instructions to dump keys, which has to be argued is causing harm because its completely legal to do on consoles and games that you own.
Dolphin ships with the Wii's AES key but Nintendo never pursued them in court.
Most likely Nintendo won't get anywhere and only get Yuzu to remove some wiki pages and stuff which will make it slightly harder to use or slow down development by threatening more lawsuits.
You the pineappleEA guy? I love that I can have the patreon version for free with an easy updater thanks to the yuzu team stealing code from him and him having a vendetta.
Yeah and none of the switch emulator stuff I've seen comes bundled with the firmware. You have to track that down separately or dump your own from your Switch.
It is not illegal to make copies of games you own and play them on an emulator. That is what was decided by the courts. Nintendo is trying to make that illegal.
Yup. I was in a second hand game shop (cex) a month or so ago and most switch games were only 10 quid cheaper than the e shop. Mario and legend of Zelda where something like 50 pounds. That's because those games don't actually drop in price either psychically or on the eShop much.
I've had one for years, waiting for when Nintendo dropped support. I'm not gonna give them any more money as far as the Switch is concerned, so no reason not to go for it now. A project for this weekend, maybe.
They might have a case if yuzu is actually decrypting switch software. That would be stupid of the developers, though. I would assume that they require you to provide decrypted games.
That's basically the only leg nintendo has to stand on here, but nintendo can out lawyer you into the poor house regardless.
AFAIK rooted Switch consoles are used to decrypt the games and Yuzu just tries to execute whatever nonencrypted Switch binary. Unless Nintendo can prove that either the Yuzu developers themselves are behind ripping commercial Switch games or directly colluded with the rippers, they'd have a hard time to actually win. That said, regular people with normal income levels will probably just sign everything because a prolonged lawsuit is about just bankrupting them, not being ruled the win by the judge.
yuzu starts with the error "Missing Derivation Components"
yuzu requires console keys to play your games. Please follow our Quickstart Guide to dump these keys and system files from your Nintendo Switch.
Their guide also talks about dumping games from your console so I'm not sure how far it goes, but if they want console keys they are likely decrypting something
Edit: I am dumb, of course the source code is out there. I have visited this repository a thousand times but my monkey brain can't remember what I ate for breakfast.
Everyone download the hell out of it and never let this die.
~ ~ ~
If it isn't already open source, Yuzu team needs to get that shiz open source post-haste. Let's get that code absolutely everywhere.
When that popular manga app Tachiyomi got legal bonked, the bajillion forks of it kept some semblance of the original going.
I know there's money to be made and something like an emulator is considerably more complex than a book reading app/scraper, but it would at least give the project a chance of not dying forever.
there are already 3rd party repositories that come from yuzu. e.g Yuzu Pineapple is a repository that autocompiles the source code that yuzu puts out so that you dont have to sub to get early access builds prebuilt.
The legality of the emulation itself has long been established, but I've been concerned for a while that illegal DRM circumvention of the games themselves has been a viable legal avenue. Under the DMCA, even the process to dump your own legally-licensed games has arguably been in a legal grey area for a while now, with how they are locked down. If any method to playing the games become illegal, any unauthorized emulation of games becomes de facto illegal.
I'd cite legal precedent here, but there's been a substantial right-wing, pro-corporate shift in American courts over time. Who knows how this will go.
Yet another reason I never buy anything from Nintendo. Fuck those fucks. On average only like 2 Nintendo games per console generation are ever any good anyway. They should be held responsible for all the e-waste they generate.
If Nintendo wanted to, maybe they could offer a legal, paid way to play Nintendo games on PCs. They could fork Yuzu and offer it, along with the proprietary files you need like the BIOS, as a paid download. "Nintendo Switch PC Platform" or something. If they set the price right, it would be cheaper than a real Switch because you don't have to supply real hardware, but they could still make as much profit from it as they do from a real Switch. Then of course they could sell digital versions of their games that could be used by the emulator.
For comparison, look at Sony. They have started bringing some of their games to PC (Spider-Man, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding). They probably realised there's money to be made there.
Shit like this is why I moved away from Nintendo for my gaming platform of choice.
But take heart, Nintendo, I'll try to make time to enjoy Nintendo first party games later on a pre-loaded cheap Chinese knock-off device.
Except, I definitely won't because Nintendo will definitely succeed in stuffing the genie back into the bottle, and preventing their games from being enjoyed on un-approved platforms in un-approved ways. /s