The corporation disclosed in their complaint that the most recent Zelda game had been pirated more than a million times.
It has been reported that Nintendo has initiated legal action against the developers of a well-known Switch emulator known as Yuzu. This emulator enables users to play games that were originally designed for the platform on their personal computers and Android devices. In the lawsuit that was shared by Stephen Totilo of Game File, the company alleged that Yuzu violates the regulations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that prohibit circumvention and trafficking of intellectual property.
It was noted by Nintendo that the company secures its games by encrypting them and implementing other security elements that are designed to prevent users from playing unauthorized copies. This security barrier can be circumvented by Yuzu, who also has the ability to decrypt Nintendo games. According to the company’s complaint, “[W]ithout Yuzu’s decryption of Nintendo’s encryption, unauthorized copies of games could not be played on personal computers or Android devices.”
Nintendo continued by stating that it is against the law to “circumvent technological measures put in place by copyright owners to protect against unlawful access to and copying of copyrighted works” in accordance with the Digital Music Capture Act (DMCA). Distributing “software that is primarily designed to circumvent technological measures” is another form of illegal trafficking that is considered to be illegal. Consequently, the defendants are “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale,” according to the lawsuit. The precedent that this case could create for future cases against emulators, which are not illegal in and of themselves, could be established by this court proceeding. It has been brought to the attention of Ars Technica that Nintendo’s claims are, by their very nature, unlawful.
Nintendo disclosed in their complaint that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was illegally distributed a week and a half prior to its official release. This serves as an illustration of the extent to which Yuzu has impacted the company’s business. It was reportedly downloaded more than a million times from unauthorized websites, which clearly mentioned that individuals are able to play the game file through Yuzu. It was also revealed by the corporation that the developers of Yuzu are successful in making money off of their emulator. To date, they have earned approximately $50,000 from the commercial version of their program that is available on Google Play. Additionally, they receive approximately $30,000 each month from their Patreon patrons.
Nintendo has filed a petition with the court requesting that the creators of Yuzu be prevented from promoting and distributing the software. A sum of money that has not been defined is also being requested as “equitable relief and damages.”