Nintendo lawsuit claims Yuzu Switch emulator facilitates piracy

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Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the creators of the popular Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator, claiming the emulator facilitates piracy. If you’re unfamiliar with Yuzu, it’s an emulator software that emulates Switch games so you can play those games on PC. It’s been around for a few years and up until now, it seemed to be getting along fine. Then the Steam Deck came out and it seems Nintendo started to take more notice.

Game File’s Stephen Totilo spotted the lawsuit, saying on X that Nintendo claims Yuzu illegally circumvents Nintendo’s software encryption. Nintendo is not just trying to get the emulator pulled down, however. According to the lawsuit, Nintendo is seeking damages for the alleged violations in addition to the shutdown of the emulator.

The lawsuit says Yuzu couldn’t play pirated Nintendo Switch games without breaking its encryption

In the lawsuit, which you can read here, Nintendo claims Yuzu was primarily designed to break its encryption software for the sole purpose of playing pirated games. The company isn’t saying that Yuzu provided people with the BIOSes needed to get games to work. But it is saying that Yuzu doesn’t have any other legal uses, and instead, it’s only for providing users with a way to play copyrighted content.

“Only because Yuzu decrypts a Nintendo Switch game file dynamically during operation can the game be played in Yuzu,” the lawsuit says. Nintendo doesn’t mention a figure with regard to the damages it’s seeking. However, the lawsuit describes at length the ways in which it believes Yuzu damaged Nintendo. Nintendo says that Yuzu profited from increased donations on its Patreon during the time that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was leaked prior to its release. Back in 2023 the game was leaked online and pirated copies of it were spread considerably around the internet.

Nintendo also says that Yuzu earns about $30,000 a month from its Patreon. Additionally, the company points out that “paid members doubled” between May 1 and May 12. This is when the leaked copy of Tears of the Kingdom was distributed.

Does Nintendo have a case?

This is tough to say. According to The Verge, who spoke with business attorney Richard Hoeg, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act might give Nintendo the ammo it needs. The DMCA allows Nintendo to suggest Yuzu was designed solely to break Nintendo’s encryption software. And if it can prove that, then Nintendo could certainly have a case. Yuzu would then be in a particularly tough predicament.

That being said, emulators are technically legal. What isn’t legal is downloading pirated copies of games to play on those emulators. The lawsuit also goes into detail about ROM download sites. It says a fair percentage of ROM download sites directed users to install Yuzu. For the purpose of playing their newly downloaded games. It also says that “more than 20% of download links” for Tears of the Kingdom suggested Yuzu as the emulator to use.

Whether or not Nintendo has a case, there are a fair number of people who appear to side with both Nintendo and Yuzu. Multiple users on X in the comments of Totilo’s tweet are suggesting Nintendo is in the right. Pointing to the fact that the Switch is still a current console. Meanwhile, there appear to be just as many if not more people who hope Nintendo loses this case. As of right now you can still grab Yuzu for PC on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There’s also an Android copy of the emulator that was released for Android back at the end of May of last year.

2024-02-29 15:08:11