Repository with text of DMCA takedown notices as received. GitHub does not endorse or adopt any assertion contained in the following notices. Users identified in the notices are presumed innocent u...
The DMCA takedown seems to be specifically about Ryujinx’s ability to decode ROMs. Circumventing DRM is in fact illegal according to the DMCA so they appear to have a valid argument. However, in their takedown notice they assume that the decryption keys are obtained illegally. I’m wondering if the DMCA forbids extracting the decryption keys (without distribution) from your own legitimately owned Nintendo hardware for personal backup. If so, then the Ryujinx feature might also be defensible.
This also raises the question of whether an emulator could be made to work on already decrypted media and let you figure out how to do that yourself. Nintendo could argue that its main use is still to play illegally decrypted ROMs but the emulator would have a decent defense imo.
Unfortunately, DMCA takes an extreme stance when it comes to anti-circumvention. Even personal backup doesn’t have a strong legitimacy case under it, especially not when it comes to the tools that enable it.
Very related to this, LockpickRCM is a tool whose entire purpose is to extract your own Switch keys for the titles you own, and in turn is far more useful for people who want personal backups than those who are pirating the games. Still got a DMCA takedown two years ago, and though it never went to court it’s extremely unlikely any court would have ruled in their favor if it did.
In theory it depends on if the emulator is using any proprietary Nintendo-owned code. In practice, it doesn’t matter at all because Nintendo can just out-spend any emulation group in legal battles until they give up.
Haven’t they admitted that they had no power to really take down emulation since it is legal?
The DMCA takedown seems to be specifically about Ryujinx’s ability to decode ROMs. Circumventing DRM is in fact illegal according to the DMCA so they appear to have a valid argument. However, in their takedown notice they assume that the decryption keys are obtained illegally. I’m wondering if the DMCA forbids extracting the decryption keys (without distribution) from your own legitimately owned Nintendo hardware for personal backup. If so, then the Ryujinx feature might also be defensible.
This also raises the question of whether an emulator could be made to work on already decrypted media and let you figure out how to do that yourself. Nintendo could argue that its main use is still to play illegally decrypted ROMs but the emulator would have a decent defense imo.
Unfortunately, DMCA takes an extreme stance when it comes to anti-circumvention. Even personal backup doesn’t have a strong legitimacy case under it, especially not when it comes to the tools that enable it.
Very related to this, LockpickRCM is a tool whose entire purpose is to extract your own Switch keys for the titles you own, and in turn is far more useful for people who want personal backups than those who are pirating the games. Still got a DMCA takedown two years ago, and though it never went to court it’s extremely unlikely any court would have ruled in their favor if it did.
In theory it depends on if the emulator is using any proprietary Nintendo-owned code. In practice, it doesn’t matter at all because Nintendo can just out-spend any emulation group in legal battles until they give up.