Massive setback.
On Friday, Nintendo sent a DMCA request to Valve to block the impending release of the GameCube and Wii emulator, Dolphin.
Per PC Gamer, the request reads as follows:
Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, notices such as this are sent to the service provider (Valve), who then share it with the infringing party (the Dolphin team). They, alongside Valve, have the option of filing a counter notice, assuming the software doesn’t violate the terms of the DMCA as Nintendo claims, or can accept the request. If they do file a counter claim, Nintendo has two weeks to decide whether or not they will sue. If this was all a bluff and they decide it’s not worth spending the legal fees, then Dolphin will likely return to Steam.
The point may be to scare them off, however. While Nintendo’s hatred of the emulation scene is well known, it might be a risky maneuver to actually go through with a suit. There is precedent when it comes to emulation, at least in the US, thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Bleem. A win would be a crippling blow against emulation as a whole, but a loss on Nintendo’s part would force them into a position where they’d have fewer tools to deal with these sorts of things.
The letter, however, states the claim that “the Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization and decrypting the ROMs at or immediately before runtime. Thus, use of the Dolphin emulator unlawfully ‘circumvent[s] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under’ the Copyright Act.” And this, apparently, happens to be true (specifically for the Wii common key), meaning that this could take Dolphin out completely across all of the platforms it’s available for, not just Steam.
As of right now, only the Steam page is gone; Dolphin is still up and available everywhere else it could previously be found. The Dolphin team has also not received any direct contact from Nintendo. The team did, however, post the following on their site:
It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.
We appreciate your patience in the meantime.
Source: PC Gamer
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