Nintendo, Ticked by Zelda Leaks, Does a DMCA Run on Switch Emulation Tools (arstechnica.com) 35
Perhaps woken by news of its next premier first-party title already looking really impressive on emulators, Nintendo has moved to take down key tools for emulating and unlocking Switch consoles, including one that lets Switch owners grab keys from their own device. From a report: Simon Aarons maintained a forked repository of Lockpick, a tool (along with Lockpick_RCM) that grabbed the encryption keys from a Nintendo Switch and allowed it to run officially licensed games. Aarons tweeted on Thursday night that Nintendo had issued DMCA takedown requests to GitHub, asking Lockpick, Lockpick_RCM, and nearly 80 forks and derivations to be taken down under section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which largely makes illegal the circumvention of technological protection measures that safeguard copyrighted material.
Nintendo's takedown request (RTF file) notes that the Switch contains "multiple technological protection measures" that allow the Switch to play only "legitimate Nintendo video game files." Lockpick tools, combined with a modified Switch, let users grab the cryptographic keys from their own Switch and use them on "systems without Nintendo's Console TPMs" to play "pirated versions of Nintendo's copyright-protected game software." GitHub typically allows repositories with DMCA strikes filed against them to remain open while their maintainers argue their case. Still, it was an effective move. Seeing Nintendo's move on Lockpick, a popular Switch emulator on Android, Skyline, called it quits over the weekend, at least as a public-facing tool you can easily download to your phone. In a Discord post (since removed, along with the Discord itself), developer "Mark" wrote that "the risks associated with a potential legal case are too high for us to ignore, and we cannot continue knowing that we may be in violation of copyright law."
Nintendo's takedown request (RTF file) notes that the Switch contains "multiple technological protection measures" that allow the Switch to play only "legitimate Nintendo video game files." Lockpick tools, combined with a modified Switch, let users grab the cryptographic keys from their own Switch and use them on "systems without Nintendo's Console TPMs" to play "pirated versions of Nintendo's copyright-protected game software." GitHub typically allows repositories with DMCA strikes filed against them to remain open while their maintainers argue their case. Still, it was an effective move. Seeing Nintendo's move on Lockpick, a popular Switch emulator on Android, Skyline, called it quits over the weekend, at least as a public-facing tool you can easily download to your phone. In a Discord post (since removed, along with the Discord itself), developer "Mark" wrote that "the risks associated with a potential legal case are too high for us to ignore, and we cannot continue knowing that we may be in violation of copyright law."
An emulator is not a DRM circumvention (Score:1)
Even if the anti-circumvention provision of the DMCA were constitutional, it doesn't apply to a mere emulator.
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An Nintendo Switch emulator is not DRM circumvention. A tool that can extract secret keys from a Nintendo Switch (keys that are then used to run unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games) may well count as DRM circumvention.
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Why wouldn't it apply? The hardware implements DRM: therefore, if we provide a way to bypass the hardware, we are providing a way to bypass the DRM the hardware has implemented. Even the summary states that Nintendo has implemented DRM in the hardware:
>Nintendo's takedown request (RTF file) notes that the Switch contains "multiple technological protection measures"
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That particular comment you are quoting appears to be RIGHTISTS NPC malfunction, not leftist. They are trying to blame this on leftists politics, but completely missed what actually is happening because the use of the word "woken" triggered a reflexive right-wing response: "go woke and go broke". They missed that the word "woken" was being used in a way that had no context of "woke politics".
Nintendo the dicks (Score:2)
That they are loosing money by no putting the software on all platforms available.
It isn't like Nintendo offer much in the way of hardware. Oh look out! The old ass Android SoC is coming to get us.
The only reason the Switch sells is because it has the keys to unlock the games. And the only reason Nintendo is around is the cult built around their name. They are like Apple. They couldn't compete if they had too and will use muscle to prevent anything
Re:Nintendo the dicks (Score:4, Informative)
And the only reason Nintendo is around is the cult built around their name.
Of course, continuing to put out video games that millions of people want to play has nothing to do with it.
Seriously, just one Wii Fit Plus or Breath of the Wild per generation wiould be more than enough to keep them going.
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Re: Nintendo the dicks (Score:2)
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And the only reason Nintendo is around is the cult built around their name
That would be their intellectual property. Things like Mario, the Metroid series, etc, those are IP brands they've built over the years. Now, I'm not disagreeing with you about "cult" and what not but I am pointing out that they've put a shit ton of energy into that IP.
They couldn't compete if they had too and will use muscle to prevent anything
But fighting tooth and nail for your IP is indeed "competing". It isn't the usual (brand A has objective qualities that are better than brand B) kind of fighting, but in the world of IP, this is indeed how companies compete. There's a lot
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Yup. If there's one name we can all safely ignore, it's "Anonymous Coward".
Re: Nintendo the dicks (Score:2)
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Throughout gaming history multi-platform has generally been a mark of lower quality. It's natural, split your development resources to deal with platform differences and the product suffers. A PS5 may be significantly more powerful than a Switch, but how much effort is it to convert from Switch API to PS_SDK? And what happens when you launch with Switch graphics on a PS5? Do you get lower scores because PS5 owners expect better, tainting the product? How much does it cost to support the PC and all the diffe
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They couldn't compete if they had too
Couldn't compete with whom? Nintendo's FY net profit of 2022 was higher that Microsoft's Xbox division (which includes all games and studios) and rising, and just behind Sony's Playstation division (which includes all games and studios) and which was falling.
You're completely delusional about the console gaming world.
Cat's out of the bag (Score:5, Insightful)
The emulator is already mirrored in non DMCA countries to protect Nintendo from purging it from the net entirely.
illegal? (Score:5, Informative)
Further, Nintendo sold physical ownership of those keys to anyone willing to cough up $250.00 and still does so today. The secure boot master key is stored in plain text in the system's eFuses. [switchbrew.org] That key is then used to ultimately decrypt and derive the other keys stored on the device's NAND. [switchbrew.org] All Lockpick (and it's derivatives) do is read out the secureboot master key and then uses the same algorithm to derive the rest and write them to a file on the SD card. Anyone who delaminates the CPU can read out the SB master key with a microscope, then dump the NAND to derive and decrypt the remaining keys. None of which requires bypassing *anything*. If the buyer was not meant to have those keys Nintendo shouldn't be selling them at $250.00 a set.
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This is the fundamental mathematical impossibility of industry's desire for DRM.
They want to give you a ciphertext and key, then somehow make it impossible for you to read the plaintext.
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As an emulator developer, the people behind Ryujinx and Yuzu are not doing anyone any favours. The copyright lobby groups are going to point to this as an example of why "existing laws are inadequate" and pressure governments for even more draconian laws than the DMCA. Remember the DMCA was passed into law at the behest of the RIAA/MPAA. The people making a big song and dance about emulating current generation consoles are attracting unwanted attention that may get emulators heavily restricted or banned.
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It might technically legal, but you still need a few $100k to prove it in court. Someone who develops an open source emulator probably doesn't have that kind of money lying around. Even if they did, would they want to risk jail time to defend their tool, like that guy who went to prison for selling mod chips?
Think of this differently (Score:4, Informative)
The point of this isn't that I can steal games. I don't want to steal. I want to pay. However, I do make a concession that I want to play the games for a long time.
I still have a Wii. Love it. Still play the games that I bought. The disc drive is failing; if Nintendo would sell me a new one, I would buy it. The people who enable me to unlock the games, not now (that enables picacy) but much much later are my heros.
I want to play the 50+ Switch games I own (and love, and paid for) for a long time. Without these tools that would be ultimately impossible.
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Re:Think of this differently (Score:4, Insightful)
This is yet another reason to support strong right-to-repair legislation. If the company decide that they no longer want to support their old hardware, the community should have the right to do so, along with access to the appropriate software and documentation.
It's unreasonable to expect a company to support their aging hardware forever, sure, but it's also unreasonable to leave your customers in the lurch. The natural solution is to allow and empower customers to provide support for themselves.
I'd also like to see some copyright legislation that puts abandoned works into the public domain as a precaution. These things go hand-in-hand.
Consoles sales are down (Score:2)