Nintendo issues DMCA takedown on more Switch emulators, but at least one is fighting back

Nintendo has carried out a new round of DMCA takedowns at it continues its fight against Switch emulation.

Back in May 2024 the company took down more than 8,500 clones of Switch emulator Yuzu by issuing a single DMCA notice to GitHub, which led to the site removing 8,535 repositories containing versions of the emulator.

Now, as initially noted by Reddit user Devile, Nintendo has submitted another DMCA notice to GitHub requesting that it take down the repositories still containing Yuzu, as well as those containing at least 12 other Switch emulators.

“The reported repositories offer, link to, or otherwise provide access to Nintendo Switch emulators, including but not limited to Citron, Eden, Kenji-NX, MeloNX, Pine, Pomelo, Ryubing, Ryujinx, Skyline, Sudachi, Sumi, Suyu, and Yuzu,” the DMCA notice reads.

“Nintendo Switch emulators are primarily designed to play Nintendo Switch games. Specifically, these Nintendo Switch emulators illegally circumvent Nintendo’s [technological prevention measures] and run illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games.

“Nintendo Switch games are encrypted using proprietary cryptographic keys (prod.keys) which protect against unauthorized access to and copying of the copyrighted games. During operation, these emulators necessarily use unauthorized copies of these cryptographic keys to decrypt unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games, or ROMs, at or immediately before runtime without Nintendo’s authorization.

“Thus, they are primarily designed to and unlawfully ‘circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under’ the DMCA, and distribution of these emulators constitutes unlawful trafficking in technology that is ‘primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access’ to copyrighted works.”

While some of the repositories appear to have been removed, and the websites for emulators Citron and MeloNX appear to have shut down, other emulators such as Eden appear to be resisting the takedown.

As reported by Wccftech, one of the project managers behind Eden informed its users of the takedown on its Discord page, saying: “At the time we’re unsure what exactly will happen to that repository (or when anything will happen), but the most likely scenario is that it’s removed and you won’t be able to access our stable releases on GitHub anymore.”

It then defiantly added: “Our source code is unaffected, as it isn’t hosted on GitHub. The only thing targeted was our GitHub releases page. Not the source code, not our Actions workflow, nothing on our self-hosted Git instance, not even our development PR/Master/Nightly builds. The source code is always available at https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-issues-dmca-takedown-on-more-switch-emulators-but-at-least-one-is-fighting-back/, and releases are also mirrored at https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/nintendo-issues-dmca-takedown-on-more-switch-emulators-but-at-least-one-is-fighting-back/. Our development will continue as always.”

In a statement to Wccftech, Eden founder Camille LaVey said the aim was to keep the emulator going despite Nintendo’s DMCA takedowns on GitHub, claiming that it was designed for people who own games and want to get more out of them (despite the fact that it mainly appears to be used for piracy).

“Effectively, as founder of Eden, I can say that we want to keep continuing the work in the preservation of videogames, allowing game owners to benefit from this beyond their original hardware,” LaVey said.

“Since this is a community-driven project, we always look to provide the best result possible for all – yet, we’re never sure of what the future can bring, so we’re always trying to ask the community to help us in any way they can, so Eden can still be alive for years to come.”