Nintendo serves Valve a takedown notice to remove an emulator from Steam
Nintendo has forced Valve to delist a Wii and GameCube emulator from Steam, citing it violates the megacorp's intellectual property rights.
In a letter seen by PC Gamer, Nintendo issued Valve a DMCA notice, stating Valve had an «obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store».
«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,» the demand stated.
«The Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorisation and decrypting the ROMs at or immediately before runtime. Thus, use of the Dolphin emulator unlawfully 'circumvent[s] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under' the Copyright Act.»
It was only after Nintendo had contacted Valve that the emulation development team itself learned of the former's objection. At the time of writing, Valve has indeed removed the emulator's store page, and the Dolphin team has yet to confirm how, or even if, it will challenge the claim with a counter-notice.
«It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed,» the Dolphin team said via its website.
«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
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