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Nintendo blocked Dolphin emulator release on Steam

By - | Views: 84,634

Update 29/05: According to Pierre Bourdon on Mastodon, who was Dolphin's treasurer for the foundation backing the project (Bourdon is stepping down), Valve actually initiated the conversation to check in with Nintendo on this. So this is not a DMCA takedown request but Nintendo said it would violate the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions, so Valve took it down. So there's technically nothing for Dolphin to counter here.

Kotaku also got a statement from Nintendo on this:

“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” a spokesperson for Nintendo told Kotaku in an email. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to do the same.”

The article title was updated to better reflect the situation.


Original article below for context:

Back in March the plan was announced for the Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin to release on Steam, along with some useful Steam features but now that seems unlikely to happen.

The Dolphin team has now announced that their Steam page was taken down, as Nintendo sent a cease and desist notice to Valve about it. Here's the statement they released:

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.

Such a shame.

Why now though? Dolphin has been around since 2003 for GameCube, adding basic Wii support in 2007, so Dolphin was there during the time the Wii was still being fully supported. Nintendo also only went after the Steam page, not the project as a whole as it can still be found on GitHub and official site. According to a comment from the Citra developer on Reddit, it's due to Dolphin including decryption keys with the project.

Really, it's not going to do Nintendo much good, it's put Dolphin all over the news and even more people will now know about it and end up using it.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Edgarins29 May 31, 2023
More like Nintendon't
Mountain Man Jun 1, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
benstor214 Jun 1, 2023
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I would say that all of you are not going far enough! I would say burn all the art! And while we’re at it, let’s burn ALL the books, too! Then we wouldn’t have this stupid discussion as there would be no more art to “preserve/pirate”.

My friends and me did this book burning in 1933…it was fun!
Purple Library Guy Jun 1, 2023
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.
benstor214 Jun 1, 2023
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Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.
Did Aristotle ever get paid? You have no morale right to Aristotle’s stuff. You shouldn’t have access to anything he wrote. A shame that not more works are lost in time. There shouldn’t survive any work at all. Pirates are citing Aristotle everywhere without shame - as it shows they read a work without paying for it.


Last edited by benstor214 on 1 June 2023 at 8:51 am UTC
Mountain Man Jun 1, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.

The only reason I asked is because you can't possibly answer without begging the question.
slaapliedje Jun 2, 2023
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.

The only reason I asked is because you can't possibly answer without begging the question.
I'll hop in here for my fellow GURPS player; Imagine as it were that the internet and all it's knowledge was one day erased. You could no longer look up answers on wikipedia, you could no longer search for stepsister pr0n. All knowledge of scientific discoveries were only kept in the brains of old people that would eventually die off.

The burning of the library of Alexandria is pretty much the ancient equivalent of that. People from all over the (known to the Old world) world would go to Alexandria to study everything about science, philosophy, religion, etc. The burning of Alexandria literally started what many historians refer to as 'the dark ages'. We didn't have anything similar until the renaissance. Now imagine if we were about 1400-1500 years more advanced than we are now... Granted maybe we would have destroyed ourselves 300 years ago :P
benstor214 Jun 2, 2023
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Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.

The only reason I asked is because you can't possibly answer without begging the question.
I'll hop in here for my fellow GURPS player; Imagine as it were that the internet and all it's knowledge was one day erased. You could no longer look up answers on wikipedia, you could no longer search for stepsister pr0n. All knowledge of scientific discoveries were only kept in the brains of old people that would eventually die off.

The burning of the library of Alexandria is pretty much the ancient equivalent of that. People from all over the (known to the Old world) world would go to Alexandria to study everything about science, philosophy, religion, etc. The burning of Alexandria literally started what many historians refer to as 'the dark ages'. We didn't have anything similar until the renaissance. Now imagine if we were about 1400-1500 years more advanced than we are now... Granted maybe we would have destroyed ourselves 300 years ago :P
Funny. All of you have NO IDEA how the library of Alexandria got such a large collection of texts.
Basically every ship that stopped in the port of Alexandria got searched for texts (papyri etc.) and everything that was found was brought to the library where it was COPIED and the originals were given back to the ship.

Yes, the librarians of ancient Alexandria were FILTHY PIRATES. They should have been hanged for such a large scale operation in COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

Good thing the library of Alexandria burned down! And a sad thing the criminals didn’t burn with it.


Last edited by benstor214 on 2 June 2023 at 6:53 am UTC
slaapliedje Jun 2, 2023
Quoting: benstor214
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.

The only reason I asked is because you can't possibly answer without begging the question.
I'll hop in here for my fellow GURPS player; Imagine as it were that the internet and all it's knowledge was one day erased. You could no longer look up answers on wikipedia, you could no longer search for stepsister pr0n. All knowledge of scientific discoveries were only kept in the brains of old people that would eventually die off.

The burning of the library of Alexandria is pretty much the ancient equivalent of that. People from all over the (known to the Old world) world would go to Alexandria to study everything about science, philosophy, religion, etc. The burning of Alexandria literally started what many historians refer to as 'the dark ages'. We didn't have anything similar until the renaissance. Now imagine if we were about 1400-1500 years more advanced than we are now... Granted maybe we would have destroyed ourselves 300 years ago :P
Funny. All of you have NO IDEA how the library of Alexandria got such a large collection of texts.
Basically every ship that stopped in the port of Alexandria got searched for texts (papyri etc.) and everything that was found was brought to the library where it was COPIED and the originals were given back to the ship.

Yes, the librarians of ancient Alexandria were FILTHY PIRATES. They should have been hanged for such a large scale operation in COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

Good thing the library of Alexandria burned down! And a sad thing the criminals didn’t burn with it.
You realize that copyright laws didn't exist back then and the only way written words were passed onto each other was by way of copying the text by hand? Why do you think flat earth came about and keeps coming about? Uneducated idiots. People knew the earth was a globe in ancient times. Hell, they knew about the precession of the equinox. We would probably not be arguing constantly about how the pyramids were built if the Library of Alexandria had not burned...

You may as well accuse the Christian Monks of being filthy pirates, as they too would copy documents all the time.
Purple Library Guy Jun 2, 2023
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: benstor214
Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain Man
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: Mountain ManBut here is something to think about: countless works of art have been lost throughout human history, and will continue to be lost. Are we worse off as a species because of it?
Yes, we bloody well are. You know that old question, what would you do if you had a time machine and could use it just once? You have no idea how many people answer that question, "Would go and rescue the books from the Library of Alexandria"; although my mother leans towards "Would go stop the fire that burned down the building that held all the Anglo Saxon literature that was ever written down".

You say that we're worse off as a species because the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I'm curious in what way you think we're worse off, and what your basis is for claiming so.
Getting into deep philosophy here. In what way or for what reasons can you say any person, let alone the species, is "better off"? Any basis you propose can be readily disputed.

I personally think it is better to have wisdom than lack it, better to have knowledge than lack it, better to have stories than lack them. Being better off is not just about how many calories you consume. Many works of great philosophers, many accounts of history and mythology, were lost. Just having the missing Aristotle stuff would probably make a surprising difference to our thinking, considering how foundational the stuff we do have is. And as I recall, we know there is missing Aristotle stuff because other people's commentaries have referred to it. It's not just in physics where new thinkers stand on the shoulders of giants; philosophical and political thought also builds on the ideas of the past, and if we'd had more of them to build on, our whole intellectual tradition would be richer.

The only reason I asked is because you can't possibly answer without begging the question.
I'll hop in here for my fellow GURPS player; Imagine as it were that the internet and all it's knowledge was one day erased. You could no longer look up answers on wikipedia, you could no longer search for stepsister pr0n. All knowledge of scientific discoveries were only kept in the brains of old people that would eventually die off.

The burning of the library of Alexandria is pretty much the ancient equivalent of that. People from all over the (known to the Old world) world would go to Alexandria to study everything about science, philosophy, religion, etc. The burning of Alexandria literally started what many historians refer to as 'the dark ages'. We didn't have anything similar until the renaissance. Now imagine if we were about 1400-1500 years more advanced than we are now... Granted maybe we would have destroyed ourselves 300 years ago :P
Funny. All of you have NO IDEA how the library of Alexandria got such a large collection of texts.
Basically every ship that stopped in the port of Alexandria got searched for texts (papyri etc.) and everything that was found was brought to the library where it was COPIED and the originals were given back to the ship.

Yes, the librarians of ancient Alexandria were FILTHY PIRATES. They should have been hanged for such a large scale operation in COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT.

Good thing the library of Alexandria burned down! And a sad thing the criminals didn’t burn with it.
You realize that copyright laws didn't exist back then and the only way written words were passed onto each other was by way of copying the text by hand? Why do you think flat earth came about and keeps coming about? Uneducated idiots. People knew the earth was a globe in ancient times. Hell, they knew about the precession of the equinox. We would probably not be arguing constantly about how the pyramids were built if the Library of Alexandria had not burned...

You may as well accuse the Christian Monks of being filthy pirates, as they too would copy documents all the time.
I think you just ran afoul of Poe's Law, there.
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