Dolphin emulator Steam release blocked by Nintendo DMCA notice
Nintendo has managed to block the Steam release of popular Gamecube and Wii emulator Dolphin by sending a cease and desist to Valve.
Nintendo are claiming that the Dolphin emulator violates their IP through the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and has used this to fire a shot across the bows and prevent Valve and the team behind the open source emulator from releasing Dolphin onto the Steam digital storefront.
In response to this, the Dolphin team posted a statement:
It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.
We appreciate your patience in the meantime.
It’s now up to the Dolphin team how to proceed, where they can either bow to the threat of legal action or file a counterclaim with Valve that then gives Nintendo the decision over whether or not to sue.
However, we’re at a point where major gaming corporations are more than happy to use such scare tactics to force fan-led projects to shut down – Activision has shut down fan-created Call of Duty servers, Take Two threatened and shut down GTA mods, and more – and Nintendo is amongst the most litigious companies out there. Every single time it’s the full weight of a multi-billion dollar corporation’s legal team slamming down on fans that don’t realistically have the resources to take the fight to the courts.
Emulation is entirely legal, and Dolphin itself is simply a
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