Trouble with Nintendo again? The team behind the Yuzu emulator recently had to admit defeat. But that doesn’t seem to be the end of the story.
Those: Nintendo/Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo is known for its rigorous approach to any form of copyright infringement on its brand. At the beginning of March, the Tropic Haze development team had to quietly admit defeat to Nintendo. The doors and gates of the Yuzu emulator were closed and there was a hefty fine worth millions. You can find out more about this here.
Apparently Nintendo didn’t take into account that the open source code for the Yuzu emulator is circulating in abundance on platforms like GitHub. After the Yuzu emulator was closed, other offshoots of the Nintendo emulator appeared, such as Suyu. Fans also created their own forks or created duplicates using GitHub repositories. The code also made its way to other hosting platforms. The number of unreported cases seems to be high if you just look at the official takedowns on the developer platform GitHub. Microsoft, the parent company of the developer service, has announced that at least 8,535 repositories containing Yuzu code had to be removed recently.
GitHub explained that the reported network that allegedly contained infringing content was larger than 100 repositories. The submitter also claimed that all or most forks were infringing to the same extent as the parent repository. Based on this claim, GitHub processed the takedown notice against the entire network of 8535 repositories, including the parent repository.
Does Nintendo now have to admit defeat?
There have been discussions around the topic of emulators for years. These do not violate copyright per se. It is only a copyright violation when users illegally download the software or games and run them. However, in the case of Yuzu, things are not that simple as the emulator uses cryptographic keys. The successors of the emulator also use this technology.
It could be difficult for Nintendo to stop the code from spreading on platforms like GitHub. Once online, the code spreads like wildfire. So it seems to be impossible for Nintendo to actually take out all the versions that are circulating on the internet. Apparently Nintendo now has to admit defeat.