Nintendo's stated reason is that Dolphin includes decryption keys that belong to Nintendo, it'll argue that this counts as copy protection circumvention. While emulators have been in court cases,...
Nintendo's stated reason is that Dolphin includes decryption keys that belong to Nintendo, it'll argue that this counts as copy protection circumvention. While emulators have been in court cases, at worst they ate a user-provided BIOS or firmware whole. As far as I know, from the DVD decryption keys to the PS3 root keys, this kind of decryption key has never been tested in court.
Dolphin has been around for almost 20 years now, and AFAIK Nintendo haven't filed any lawsuits against the project in all that time. So IMO this DMCA notice sent to Valve/Steam is likely just...
Dolphin has been around for almost 20 years now, and AFAIK Nintendo haven't filed any lawsuits against the project in all that time. So IMO this DMCA notice sent to Valve/Steam is likely just Nintendo's lawyers operating on somewhat dubious legal grounds, testing the waters, and being a bit overzealous/spiteful.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Dolphin devs decide against filing a DMCA counter notice though, since if they do that then Nintendo will probably just double down, and finally file a proper lawsuit against them in order to put the legality of using decrypted security keys in unlicensed emulation software to the test. And I doubt any of the Dolphin devs want to deal with that, or risk losing such a case, even if they could potentially successfully defend themselves from it in the end.
Unfortunately this isn't a DMCA takedown notice, the Dolphin folks say it's a formal cease and desist citing the DMCA and based on the PC Gamer article that's not just a funny wording quirk....
Unfortunately this isn't a DMCA takedown notice, the Dolphin folks say it's a formal cease and desist citing the DMCA and based on the PC Gamer article that's not just a funny wording quirk. Dolphin has a key and code to decrypt Wii games. DMCA notices are for copyright infringement, but not the copy protection circumvention that Nintendo is bringing to the table.
I agree they're testing the waters, if they thought they had sharp enough teeth on this one I have no doubt they'd go straight for Dolphin's throat, but the fact that they're taking a DRM-breaking route means that there's no counter notice, none of that normal procedure, just "hey stop that" and then, maybe, a lawsuit.
Does Nintendo have any legitimate fair reason for doing this? I can’t think of one.
Nintendo's stated reason is that Dolphin includes decryption keys that belong to Nintendo, it'll argue that this counts as copy protection circumvention. While emulators have been in court cases, at worst they ate a user-provided BIOS or firmware whole. As far as I know, from the DVD decryption keys to the PS3 root keys, this kind of decryption key has never been tested in court.
Does it matter? :(
And if it does, surely Nintendo would end up presenting a cease-and-desist to the Dolphin developers themselves, thus shuttering the project?
Dolphin has been around for almost 20 years now, and AFAIK Nintendo haven't filed any lawsuits against the project in all that time. So IMO this DMCA notice sent to Valve/Steam is likely just Nintendo's lawyers operating on somewhat dubious legal grounds, testing the waters, and being a bit overzealous/spiteful.
I wouldn't be surprised if the Dolphin devs decide against filing a DMCA counter notice though, since if they do that then Nintendo will probably just double down, and finally file a proper lawsuit against them in order to put the legality of using decrypted security keys in unlicensed emulation software to the test. And I doubt any of the Dolphin devs want to deal with that, or risk losing such a case, even if they could potentially successfully defend themselves from it in the end.
Unfortunately this isn't a DMCA takedown notice, the Dolphin folks say it's a formal cease and desist citing the DMCA and based on the PC Gamer article that's not just a funny wording quirk. Dolphin has a key and code to decrypt Wii games. DMCA notices are for copyright infringement, but not the copy protection circumvention that Nintendo is bringing to the table.
I agree they're testing the waters, if they thought they had sharp enough teeth on this one I have no doubt they'd go straight for Dolphin's throat, but the fact that they're taking a DRM-breaking route means that there's no counter notice, none of that normal procedure, just "hey stop that" and then, maybe, a lawsuit.