When Nintendo took legal action against open-source Nintendo Switch emulator Yuba, many developers forked the repository, effectively creating thousands of duplicates on GitHub and elsewhere. The Japanese game giant went after them, too, "blitzing" GitHub with takedown notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (DMCA)
The notice was filed on developer platform GitHub, which Nintendo claimed housed repositories that "offer and provide access to the Yuzu emulator or code based on [it]" which "illegally circumvents Nintendo's technological protection measures and runs illegal copies of Switch games."
GitHub said it contacted the owners of the repositories to provide an "opportunity to make changes" before taking down the repositories, in addition to providing legal resources and information on how to file counter notices.
Emulators are legal, and one of the apparent gotchas with Yuba was its inclusion of Nintendo's encryption keys. GitHub's measured response here might be because while many (surely most) of the forks are simply copies of Yuba, some have received further development to remove the keys and other Nintendo firmware and software elements. More productive Nintendo goings-on include the forthcoming Nintendo Switch 2.
Previously: A portable dock for my Nintendo Switch
