suyu

Nintendo targets Switch-emulation chat servers, decryption tools with DMCA

DMCA, Emulation, gaming, Nintendo, suyu, Switch, yuzu / Mike M. / April 13, 2024

Tightening the clamps —

Legal fallout continues following Yuzu lawsuit.

Kyle Orland – Apr 12, 2024 3: 33 pm UTC

Enlarge / Is a name like “Suyu” ironic enough to avoid facing a lawsuit?

Suyu

Nintendo continues to use DMCA requests to halt projects it says aid in the piracy of Switch content. Discord has shut down the discussion servers associated with two prominent Yuzu forks—Suyu and Sudachi—while GitHub has removed a couple of projects related to the decryption of Switch software for use with emulators or hacked consoles.

The takedowns are the latest aftershocks from Nintendo’s federal lawsuit against Switch emulator Yuzu, which led to a $2.4 million settlement weeks later. Yuzu voluntarily shut down its GitHub page and Discord server as part of that settlement, though archived discussions from Discord are still accessible.

That settlement includes a section prohibiting the makers of Yuzu from “acting in active concert and participation” with third parties in the distribution or promotion of Yuzu or any clones that make use of its code. But there’s no evidence that anyone enjoined by that settlement is actively working with Suyu or Sudachi on their projects.

“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests,” a company spokesperson told The Verge. “In this instance, there was also a court-ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order.”

On GitHub, Nintendo’s latest DMCA requests focus on two tools: Sigpatch Updater, which the company says “allow[s] users to bypass the signature verification” in Switch games, and Lockpick, which allows “unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch” on modded consoles, Nintendo says.

You can run…

Last month, one of the moderators behind the Suyu project told Ars Technica that Suyu had taken pains to avoid the legal pitfalls that tripped up Yuzu before it. That includes Discord server rules that strictly prohibited any discussion of piracy, including “asking for system files, ROMs, encryption keys, shader caches, and discussion of leaked games etc.”

Discord’s “Copyright & IP policy” requires complaints to include “a description of where the material you think is infringing is located on our services.” Both Suyu and Sudachi host their core emulation files on services separate from Discord.

Suyu began hosting its Git files locally after a takedown request on its GitLab repository was served late last month. Following the Discord takedown, the project now also hosts its own chat service via its website. Sudachi’s emulator files, meanwhile, remain available on GitHub as of press time.

The Discord server for Ryujinx—a separate Switch emulator that doesn’t share any code with Yuzu—remains active as of press time. “Nothing is happening to Ryujinx,” reads an automated message on that server. “We know nothing more than you do. No dooming.”

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Switch emulator Suyu hit by GitLab DMCA, project lives on through self-hosting

They can run… —

Developer says there’s “no way to confirm” if Nintendo was involved in takedown.

Kyle Orland – Mar 22, 2024 3: 20 pm UTC

Switch emulator Suyu—a fork of the Nintendo-targeted and now-defunct emulation project Yuzu—has been taken down from GitLab following a DMCA request Thursday. But the emulation project’s open source files remain available on a self-hosted git repo on the Suyu website, and recent compiled binaries remain available on an extant GitLab repo.

While the DMCA takedown request has not yet appeared on GitLab’s public repository of such requests, a GitLab spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that the project was taken down after the site received notice “from a representative of the rightsholder.” GitLab has not specified who made the request or how they represented themselves; a representative for Nintendo was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.

An email to Suyu contributors being shared on the project’s Discord server includes the following cited justification in the DMCA request:

Suyu is based off of Yuzu code, which violates Section 1201 of the DMCA. Suyu, like yuzu, is primarily designed to circumvent Nintendo’s technical protection measures, namely Suyu unlawfully uses unauthorized copies of cryptographic keys to decrypt unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games, or ROMs, at or immediately before runtime without Nintendo’s authorization. Therefore, the distribution of Suyu also constitutes unlawful trafficking of a circumvention technology.

A Suyu Discord moderator going by the handle Princess Twilight Sparkle shared a message Thursday evening citing the project’s “legal team” in reporting that Suyu will have to use the self-hosted Git repo “in the foreseeable future. Getting our GitLab back most likely needs us to go through a lawsuit, which is going to be very difficult… Thanks for your understanding.”

Troy, listed as a “Core Suyu Developer” in the Discord server, wrote Thursday afternoon that the DMCA request came from an “unknown source” and that there is “no way to confirm” if Nintendo was involved. “There is also a possibility that the person who sent this DMCA is a copyright troll, like on YouTube, based on the wording of the DMCA reason that was sent to GitLab,” Troy wrote.

Suyu Discord moderator and contributor Sharpie told Ars Technica that “we don’t have any more information than you at this time.”

Earlier this month, Sharpie outlined to Ars many steps the project’s developers were taking to avoid potential legal consequences, including avoiding “any monetization” and taking a hardline stance on any discussion of piracy. Despite those precautions, Sharpie admitted to Ars that “Suyu currently exists in a legal gray area we are trying to work our way out of.”