Nintendo managed to make it last week Block Steam release of Gamecube and Wii emulator Dolphin. Initial reports indicated that this was a DMCA takedown, but since Dolphin is not yet available for download on Steam, it turns out that Valve contacted Nintendo beforehand and fired warning shots over the bow as a reward. It soon became clear.
Valve spokesperson Kaci Aitchison Boyle later said: Confirmed by The Verge This legal document was born because Valve contacted Nintendo. “Given Nintendo’s history of taking action against some emulators, we proactively brought this to the attention of the Dolphin team after they announced that they would be releasing it to Steam soon.”
The legal notice in question confirmed by PC Gamer was addressed to Valve’s legal department and is dated May 26, 2023.
“The Dolphin Emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including, without limitation, rights under the Circumvention and Anti-Trafficking Provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 USC § 1201, and you We hereby inform you of your obligation to remove the offer of the Dolphin Emulator from the Steam store,” the document reads.
“There are no allegations here that Valve currently hosts anything that infringes Nintendo’s copyright or more broadly violates the DMCA,” said Voyer Law, which specializes in intellectual property and technology law. attorney Kellen Voyer said. “Rather, Nintendo has sent Valve a clear notice that it believes Dolphin violates the DMCA, and if Dolphin is released on Steam, Nintendo will likely take further action. Given Valve’s control over what is available on the store, Dolphin has made the decision not to intervene in any disputes between Dolphin developers and Nintendo, instead complying with Nintendo’s preemptive demands and Removed the Steam page. “
This particular law cited by Nintendo would prevent companies from hosting circumvention technology, and more importantly, in theory, rather than Nintendo hunting down the makers of Dolphin, Valve would This means that you can follow the Given that emulators are currently in a legal gray area, this is absolutely critical. Valve says he can’t host Dolphin on Steam and just say, “We’re an open platform, so talk to them.” If Dolphin is offered on Steam, Valve will be responsible.
The actual question of whether the Dolphin emulator will be held illegal by the courts remains open, but Nintendo is understandably very firm about its position.
“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” said Nintendo spokesman Eddie Garcia. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protective measures and carries out game piracy. The use of illegal emulators and game piracy negatively affects development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of others and expects others to do the same.”
Steam is a relatively open platform, but it has obvious limitations, and while Valve has all the money in the world, Nintendo and this one represent a lot of people making Nintendo emulators. Going into battle doesn’t make much sense. Issues such as the legality of such emulators are still being fought, and Valve, as a distributor of such software, obviously does not want to be in the middle of it.
With valve The following statement to the Verge.
“We operate Steam as an open platform, which relies on only distributing what creators have the legal right to distribute. and Valve is not well positioned to adjudicate those disputes – the parties, for example, claims of copyright infringement can be handled under the DMCA process, but other disputes (such as trademark infringement or breach of contract between a developer and a publisher) cannot be processed.Since there is no statutory dispute resolution process, in such cases distribution of the material will generally not proceed until the parties notify Valve that the dispute has been resolved. stop.
“We don’t want to ship applications that we know may be removed because that could cause confusion for Steam users. Nintendo has taken action against some emulators. Considering the long history, after the Dolphin team made an announcement about this issue, we have proactively raised the issue.Coming soon to Steam.According to the letter we received, Nintendo and Dolphin There is a clear legal dispute between the teams and Valve is unable to make a decision.”
Please do your best to help the Dolphin team resolve the dispute with Nintendo. Nintendo was and still is keen to stop distributing hardware emulation and ROMs. The dispute has become even more intense in recent years, with Nintendo asking, for example, to use Gary Bowser as an example, and the court agreed. But Dolphin is just one of Nintendo’s problems. A recent blockbuster, The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears has been widely distributed and has been playable via emulators since its release.
