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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/03/switch-emulator-makers-agree-to-pay-2-4-million-to-settle-nintendo-lawsuit/ [arstechnica.com]

The makers of Switch emulator Yuzu say they will "consent to judgment in favor of Nintendo" to settle a major lawsuit [arstechnica.com] filed by the console maker last week.

In a series [arstechnica.com] of filings [courtlistener.com] posted by the court Monday, the Yuzu developers agreed to pay $2.4 million in "monetary relief" and to cease "offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in Yuzu or any source code or features of Yuzu."
[...]
ending "effective immediately," along with support for 3DS emulator Citra [citra-emu.org] (which shares many of the same developers)
[...]
The proposed final judgment, which still has to be agreed to by the judge in the case, fully accepts Nintendo's stated position that "Yuzu is primarily designed to circumvent [Nintendo's copy protection] and play Nintendo Switch games" by "using unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch cryptographic keys."
[...]
While that admission doesn't technically account for Yuzu's ability to run a long list of Switch homebrew programs [gamebrew.org], proving that such homebrew was a significant part of the "ordinary course" of the average Yuzu user's experience may have been an uphill battle in court. Nintendo argued in its lawsuit that "the vast majority of Yuzu users are using Yuzu to play downloaded pirated games in Yuzu," a fact that could have played against the emulator maker at trial even if non-infringing uses for the emulator do exist.
[...]
While emulator programs are generally protected by US legal precedents [arstechnica.com] protecting reverse engineering, console makers could bring similar DMCA actions against certain emulators that rely on the use of cryptographic keys [arstechnica.com] to break copy protection. But many emulator makers feel that such hardball lawsuits are less likely to be brought against emulators for defunct systems that are no longer selling new hardware or software in significant numbers.
[...]
Nintendo's legal department has established a track record of zealously defending its copyrighted works by going after fangames [arstechnica.com], ROM distribution sites [arstechnica.com], and hardware modders [arstechnica.com] in the past. While direct legal action against emulator makers has been less common for Nintendo, the company did send a letter to Valve to prevent Wii/Gamecube emulator Dolphin from appearing on Steam [arstechnica.com] last year.

Previously on SoylentNews:
Emulation Community Expresses Defiance in Wake of Nintendo's Yuzu Lawsuit [soylentnews.org] - 20240303

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