Update 29/05: According to Pierre Bourdon on Mastodon, who was Dolphin's treasurer for the foundation backing the project (Bourdon is stepping down), Valve actually initiated the conversation to check in with Nintendo on this. So this is not a DMCA takedown request but Nintendo said it would violate the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions, so Valve took it down. So there's technically nothing for Dolphin to counter here.
Kotaku also got a statement from Nintendo on this:
“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” a spokesperson for Nintendo told Kotaku in an email. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to do the same.”
The article title was updated to better reflect the situation.
Original article below for context:
Back in March the plan was announced for the Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin to release on Steam, along with some useful Steam features but now that seems unlikely to happen.
The Dolphin team has now announced that their Steam page was taken down, as Nintendo sent a cease and desist notice to Valve about it. Here's the statement they released:
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.
Such a shame.
Why now though? Dolphin has been around since 2003 for GameCube, adding basic Wii support in 2007, so Dolphin was there during the time the Wii was still being fully supported. Nintendo also only went after the Steam page, not the project as a whole as it can still be found on GitHub and official site. According to a comment from the Citra developer on Reddit, it's due to Dolphin including decryption keys with the project.
Really, it's not going to do Nintendo much good, it's put Dolphin all over the news and even more people will now know about it and end up using it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
ElectricPrism May 29, 2023
Quoting: EikeQuoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
Quoting: Mountain ManRight, "game preservation", by which most people mean "free games".
Quoting: Purple Library GuyJust as a side note, and I know that it is not a fair use in any way, but having those games around "for free" is also part of what I'd call preservation. I mean, who has the money to buy a vintage Catlevania? Retro gaming has entered a new era when professional collectors entered the game and prices are skyrocketing across all platforms.Quoting: EikeQuoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
Quoting: Mountain ManRight, "game preservation", by which most people mean "free games".
I am a "retro gamer" myself and still buying games for my Sega systems from time to time, but for example buying PAL Saturn games is something you can't reasonably afford nowadays.
Also supplies are getting scarce because of CD rot, hardware failure and life hazards, so what can be done about this?
Add in community patches and translation that would have never happened either way, and you've got the big picture.
I am all for developers and editors charging for their IPs, but as of today there is no complete offer from any historical hardware maker, so that's where our good old geek community comes to help. That may sound ugly and I apologise for saying "piracy" may in some corner cases be of "public interest," and I still think some additional legislation should be put into place so that we are able to get to a middle ground where everyone is satisfied, but in the mean time we should be thankful this exists at all...
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: EikeQuoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
Quoting: Mountain ManRight, "game preservation", by which most people mean "free games".
"Most" and "all" is a huge difference, and you know that.
Quoting: benstor214Quoting: EikeThat’s the nice thing: you don’t need to! You just have to murky the waters and blur the line between emulation, game preservation and piracy. You only need to place one group near to the other and subsequently insinuate that there is no difference between both groups at all. Sooner than not game preservationists are deemed criminal and Nintendo’s upper management opens a bottle of champagne to celebrate the successes of the hard-working minions in forums and comment sections.Quoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
I prefer people citing what has actually been said and react to that instead of making up quotes. It always makes it look like they wouldn't trust their arguments enough.
ssj17vegeta May 29, 2023
Quoting: ssj17vegetaAs a non-american, just asking : can Nintendo be sued for this ? Is there such a thing in US law as a "counter-DMCA" or "abusive use of copyright laws" ?
The question is not uninteresting, but as things went, it seems they didn't do anything "official" in the first place, just answering Valve's question, so in this case, it's very unlikely.
ripper81358 May 29, 2023
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