Nintendo issues Valve DMCA takedown to remove Dolphin emulator
Nintendo continues its ongoing war against unlicensed software. This past Friday, the publisher slammed Valve with a DMCA takedown over its support of “Dolphin”, a popular Wii and GameCube emulator for PC. For those who aren’t aware, a DMCA takedown is a powerful legal action that allows companies to call for an immediate block for possibly illegal uses of their intellectual property.
The legal notice, originally obtained by PCGamer, reads:
“Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store.”
Back in March, the group behind the Dolphin emulator launched a Steam page stating the intent to release it in a short unspecified window. The action resulted in the immediate block and indefinite postponement of the Dolphin emulator’s release.
The developers replied via their official website:
“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.”
The Dolphin devs now have a two-week period to decide whether to abide by Nintendo’s decision or to file a counterclaim. If they decide to go against Nintendo, the Japanese company will have the
Read more on destructoid.com
