The game emulator community has suffered a massive hit after Nintendo issued over 8,500 takedown requests to GitHub. This latest move by Nintendo follows its successful lawsuit in March against the creators of the Yuzu emulator which resulted in a settlement. Nintendo’s legal prowess is well known within the gaming industry when it comes to protecting its intellectual properties so this latest step regarding the repositories on GitHub shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, although the loss in the emulator community is sure to be felt.
Per Nintendo (via GitHub):
“The reported repositories offer and provide access to the yuzu emulator or code based on the yuzu emulator. The yuzu emulator is primarily designed to play Nintendo Switch games. Specifically, yuzu illegally circumvents Nintendo’s technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games. Nintendo Switch games are encrypted using proprietary cryptographic keys (prod.keys) which protect against unauthorized access to and copying of the copyrighted games. During operation, yuzu necessarily uses 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. Thus, yuzu is primarily designed to and unlawfully “circumvent[s] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under” the DMCA. 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1). Therefore distribution of yuzu constitutes unlawful “traffic[king] in a[] technology … that … is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure….” in violation of Section 1201 of the DMCA. [private]”
GamesIndustry.biz reports that as Nintendo issued its DMCA notices, GitHub notified owners of the repositories listed in the takedown requests before removing them. Communication was given on what changes owners could make for compliance and resources on how to file counterclaims. There is no word if Nintendo plans to take further action but it might, given that GitHub is likely not the only online source of Yuzu-related emulation files.