The old Ren successfully defended the simulator on Steam! A few days ago, GameCube and Wii emulator “Dolphin Emulator” (Dolphin Simulator) official announcement, because Steam’s parent company Valve received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) warning from Nintendo, has temporarily removed the “Dolphin Emulator” Steam page.
According to foreign media PC Gamer According to the report, a document sent by Nintendo to Valve on May 26 pointed out that Dolphin used “an encryption key not authorized by Nintendo” and decrypted it before and during the execution of the ROM file.
— Dolphin Emulator (@dolphin@dolphin-emu.org) (@Dolphin_Emu) May 27, 2023
Going back to the experience of the PS emulator VGS and bleem! being sued by Sony in the early days, the original code is the main reason why the emulator can win the lawsuit. The structure and code of the emulator cannot infringe the intellectual property rights of the host.
While emulators are legal as long as they are done properly, according to Nintendo’s complaint, the Dolphin emulator program uses code that Nintendo owns copyright; providing users with unauthorized/illegal ways to bypass game ROM protection measures may infringe the original manufacturer’s intellectual property rights.
At present, Nintendo has not directly slashed the big knife against Dolphin, but only submitted a request to remove it from Valve, citing DMCA, which provided the service. The Dolphin development team also stated that they have not received any contact from Nintendo, and that Dolphin’s official website and Github have not been affected; whether Nintendo’s legal affairs will make a big move remains to be seen.
Dolphin announced the opening of the Steam page in March this year, and it is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2023 (about April to June). According to the Dolphin announcement, the release date of the Dolphin emulator on Steam has been postponed indefinitely.
