[1]Home
  > [2]Anti-Piracy > [3]DMCA >

  In the wake of its one-week lawsuit targeting the Yuzu Switch emulator,
  Nintendo is back to clean up the house. The company has just shut down
  around 30 GitHub repos offering circumvention tools with attempts to
  evade liability given short shrift. One Nintendo takedown notice makes
  it clear that, even when people link to a third-party site that hosts
  tools available via different links, it still amounts to trafficking in
  circumvention devices under the DMCA.

  [4]nintendeal2 It took less than a week for [5]Nintendo’s lawsuit
  against the company behind the Yuzu Switch emulator to have the desired
  effect.

  After agreeing to hand over [6]$2.4m to Nintendo while complying with
  the terms of a broad injunction, Tropic Haze LLC evaporated in all but
  name and its developers drifted away into the night, apologetic and
  presumably penniless. At least, that’s what the paperwork and
  subsequent announcement implied, give or take.

Nintendo: We’re Back

  With plenty of time in the interim to clone the Yuzu repo, many people
  did, purely for old times’ sake. Others still involved with projects
  related to Switch hacking and emulation had decisions to make, at least
  based on the theory that things had somehow changed. Some took evasive
  action, others took steps towards limiting liability, some appeared to
  do nothing; the usual mixed bag of responses following a big shutdown
  event.

  That Nintendo was not too far away comes as zero surprise. Among the
  targets this week were over 25 GitHub repos offering Sigpatch-Updater,
  a tool to update SigPatch files created by developer iTotalJustice. In
  conjunction with a modded console, SigPatches bypass signature
  verification when games are downloaded digitally, a red line for
  Nintendo.

  “The necessity of SigPatches to operate pirated copies of Nintendo’s
  video games is widely discussed in groups dedicated to modifying
  (hacking) the Nintendo Switch console,” Nintendo’s lengthy DMCA
  takedown notice reads.

  “For example, [redacted by GitHub], a site that instructs users how to
  modify their Nintendo Switch console, states that ‘Signature patches or
  SigPatches allow your device to bypass signature checks performed by
  [private] for installed titles,” Nintendo notes, before adding the
  following:

  Trafficking in circumvention software, such as SigPatches, violates the
  Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17
  U.S.C. §1201) (the “DMCA”), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo.

Nintendo Gets Reacquainted With iTotalJustice

  Back in the summer of 2022, a previous [7]set of DMCA notices included
  one that targeted a repo operated by iTotalJustice. Before it was taken
  down, the repo contained actual SigPatches and Nintendo makes the same
  allegation here, albeit with additional detail that broadens the scope
  beyond actual hosting.

  “With the iTotalJustice repository reported in this current notice,
  iTotalJustice is attempting to evade Nintendo’s enforcement efforts by
  providing SigPatches via a link to a third-party website ([private]),
  rather than including SigPatches in the repository itself,” Nintendo
  writes.

  “The link is accompanied by the statement ‘The patches are downloaded
  from a new host. Huge thanks to them!’ Several of the forks reported in
  this notice also link to the third-party website [private] to provide
  SigPatches.”

         Repos removed for trafficking in circumvention devices[8]
                              sigpatch-repos

  According to Nintendo, a hyperlink posted to a website that links to
  another website (not even to the SigPatches themselves), which in turn
  offers the SigPatch files for download, is illegal under the DMCA when
  the linker demonstrates knowledge and intent.

  “Linking to circumvention software is considered ‘trafficking’ in
  violation of the DMCA where, as here, the party responsible for the
  link (a) knows that the offending material is on the linked site, (b)
  knows that the linked material is circumvention technology, and (c)
  maintains the link for the purpose of disseminating that technology,”
  the company explains, citing [9]17 U.S. Code § 1201.

Takedown Notice Targets Lockpick

  A second notice targets a piece of software known as Lockpick. This
  circumvention tool bypasses Nintendo’s security (Technological
  Protection Measures, or TPM) on the Switch console, providing access to
  cryptographic keys, including product keys, which are then decrypted
  and extracted.

  This allows pirated Switch games to be played on modified consoles or
  if users prefer, on emulators like Yuzu. Nintendo states that Lockpick
  is illegal under 17 U.S.C. §1201 and those who facilitate access to it,
  under the conditions previously outlined for SigPatches, similarly
  traffic in circumvention software, contrary to the DMCA.

  These won’t be the last notices of their type from Nintendo and another
  Yuzu-style lawsuit can’t be ruled out either. In an article
  [10]published by Ars earlier this week, the developers behind apparent
  Yuzu successor ‘Suyu’ outlined a few of their lawsuit-avoidance
  strategies.

  After confirming that Suyu is pronounced “sue-you (wink, wink)” the
  strategy as outlined doesn’t really contain anything that might
  discourage a fairly litigious Nintendo even slightly. Having read the
  [11]Contributor License Agreement, it can’t be ruled out that the
  people behind this have a dark sense of humor.

  Nintendo’s notices are available [12]here and [13]here

References

  Visible links:
  1. https://torrentfreak.com/
  2. https://torrentfreak.com/category/anti-piracy/
  3. https://torrentfreak.com/category/anti-piracy/dmca/
  4. https://torrentfreak.com/images/nintendeal2-e1709594329750.jpg
  5. https://torrentfreak.com/nintendos-yuzu-lawsuit-aims-to-pour-banana-peels-over-all-emulators-240228/
  6. https://torrentfreak.com/nintendos-yuzu-lawsuit-is-all-but-done-price-2-4m-cost-to-emulation-tbd-240305/
  7. https://torrentfreak.com/why-nintendo-uses-the-dmca-to-take-down-piracy-enabling-sigpatches-220802/
  8. https://torrentfreak.com/images/sigpatch-repos.png
  9. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201
 10. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/03/heres-how-the-makers-of-the-suyu-switch-emulator-plan-to-avoid-getting-sued/
 11. https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu/-/wikis/Contributor-License-Agreement-Policy
 12. https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/f4c2c915c058e01d70d7671668b4c12a4b0e45b5
 13. https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/ccb374868b46ad19371d9f96cccdd6c8fc689cba

  Hidden links:
 15. https://torrentfreak.com/images/suyu.png

You are viewing proxied material from 1436.ninja. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.