A Lawyer Explains: Dolphin vs. Nintendo, and the Fate of Emulation
A Lawyer Explains: Dolphin vs. Nintendo, and the Fate of Emulation
by Moonsight
19 Comments
Moonsight
Hi r/Nintendo! I’m that lawyer who makes video essays. It’s been a little while since I released a Nintendo related video, but I think this one fits the bill quite nicely.
Nintendo recently issued a cease and desist to Dolphin emulator, but why was that possible? And why are emulators legal to begin with? This video answers both questions, and closely analyzes Nintendo’s letter to Valve.
For the mods, I’m always grateful for you all. If you feel the video doesn’t fit the subreddit, please don’t hesitate to remove it.
Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!
EnigmaticRhino
Ooo juicy. Definitely gonna watch this after work
Jejmaze
Common Moon Channel W video
The_Spanky_Frank
No emu’s in my court room!!!!
The1Immortal1
Another very informative video!
Edit: I guess I should actually say something of substance here.
I am very much on the anti-emulation side of the line, not because I wouldn’t love to be able to play games everywhere on anything, but because those companies and developers made those games, they have the right to not publish their games.
This video pointing out the facts, not choosing a side, I believe will help further the emulation debate on reddit and other places. Misinterpretations of the law are prevalent in any law-based discussion with non-lawyers, so it’s nice to see much of it cleared up.
I can only hope this video gains traction.
Kody_Z
Is Nintendo suing dolphin now?
The-Wing-Man
As someone in the middle of bar prep, I find the issues with emulation so interesting! Really wish I could walk around in a Nintendo lawyer’s head and see how they view all of this. Looking forward to watching this essay
NinjaWorldWar
I’ve seen your other videos and they are very good! I can’t wait to watch this later.
LiamBox
Bleem’s ps1 emulator also demostrates how emulation is not illegal. Unfortunately all of those lawsuits caused them to go bankrupt, even if they kept on winning.
PlugInSquid
This video’s ending validates my thoughts on the matter of pretty much every emulator trying to grow their audience substantially, which is don’t fucking do it. Emulators and any piracy-adjacent projects survive by keeping quiet about their existence and being unaccessible enough that it scares/confuses off those who aren’t tech savvy at all. By trying to put themselves on Steam they’ve both increased visibility and accessibility, and have endangered not only their own project but potentially emulation at large.
TheUncleBob
Is it possible that Nintendo added the request/demand to retain communications regarding Dolphin suspecting that Team Dolphin might attempt some kind of legal action against Nintendo for interference?
DaiFrostAce
Thanks you so much for doing the community a service with your videos. You are eloquent and concise with your speech, and you are a pleasure to listen to.
Enderpixel1016
So, for anybody that doesn’t know what’s going on with Nintendo and Dolphin, here’s the gist: To emulate Wii games, you need keys(don’t know about GameCube but I know the Wii needs them) actual Wii consoles will already have them and to *legally* emulate, you’d have to extract the keys from your Wii. At least that’s how it’s SUPPOSED to go. What Dolphin did instead(and who knows how long they’ve been doing this) was illegally including the keys in their application. Now, Nintendo isn’t suing dolphin. What they’re doing instead is actually a DMCA. So for once, Nintendo isn’t actually being a dick to emulation because they actually are in the right to do this, and Dolphin is in the wrong. Dolphin has the choice of taking the keys out of their app and publishing on steam(although publishing it is a *maybe*), taking the keys out of their app and not going on steam, or just dying, although I doubt the last one is the route they’re gonna take. Usually I’m against a lot of decisions Nintendo makes, but I’m actually on their side for this one since they aren’t trying to kill Dolphin. All they’re doing is essentially saying “Bro, what the fuck. Fix yo shit and we’re good… probably”. Of course I could be wrong about this since I’m just going off of what I’ve read about it. Please correct me on anything wrong.
Gramidconet
Bit of an odd request, but would you be willing to upload the ending song as its own video? I’d like it in my music playlist.
0f-bajor
Putting Dolphin on Steam was a monumentally stupid idea.
KingBroly
This is a really good video, as always, your content is really interesting and cuts through a lot of the fluff. The ending of your video about how the industry doesn’t like emulation, despite using it for re-releases and other things is a massive conundrum that they probably don’t want undone from where it is now because it’s probably ‘solved’ as is.
DSMidna
I know this is beside the point, but I find Valve’s role in all this very interesting and it is not something I even considered up to now.
No-Buyer-3509
If i was in charge of Valve, i’d just tell Nintendo off, tell them to get over it and give them the middle finger over how the Steam Deck is better than the Switch. Emulation is legal. Get over it.
It’s so cowardly how Valve cotowed to Nintendo’s demand.
EvilNoobHacker
I love that you talked about this from the legal level, but I want to mention something from a consumer level real quick: cost.
I’m a broke college kid, and don’t have too much disposable income. I have a crappy laptop, an phone, and a switch. Those are the only three methods by which I can play videogames realistically. I want to emphasize that buying lots of games on their official hardware is something I just can’t *afford* to do most of the time. I can’t afford to buy a GBA, or an OG PlayStation, or any of these older consoles alongside the games I’d want to play them on. I’ve got gas, and food, and textbooks to pay for.
Emulation, then, is really my only good option to play all these games. Yes, I know they’re illegal- I’m playing games without having paid for them, duh. However, the other option isn’t that I’d pay for them. It’s that I’d just stop gaming in general. I would have never known that I liked the Xenoblade Chronicles style of gameplay had I never played XC1. I then was able to buy XC2 and XC3 with spare cash I had when they came out, and I’ve loved them.
This is part of why I got so immensely frustrated with Dolphin trying to launch on Steam. This was never going to work- of COURSE they’d get themselves blown off the platform. Their goal shouldn’t be to search for a larger audience- pretty much everyone in the emulator scene knows about Dolphin, and it wasn’t hard to do. It wasn’t even Windows exclusive if you knew about WINE. If this leads to definitive legal action, I’ll be immensely disappointed. The entire gist was that we kept our heads down, and Big Gaming^(TM) would let us be. Don’t actively publicize or try to make money. This was simply to play older games that companies weren’t making easy to play on their platforms. Nothing more, nothing less.
19 Comments
Hi r/Nintendo! I’m that lawyer who makes video essays. It’s been a little while since I released a Nintendo related video, but I think this one fits the bill quite nicely.
Nintendo recently issued a cease and desist to Dolphin emulator, but why was that possible? And why are emulators legal to begin with? This video answers both questions, and closely analyzes Nintendo’s letter to Valve.
For the mods, I’m always grateful for you all. If you feel the video doesn’t fit the subreddit, please don’t hesitate to remove it.
Please enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Ooo juicy. Definitely gonna watch this after work
Common Moon Channel W video
No emu’s in my court room!!!!
Another very informative video!
Edit: I guess I should actually say something of substance here.
I am very much on the anti-emulation side of the line, not because I wouldn’t love to be able to play games everywhere on anything, but because those companies and developers made those games, they have the right to not publish their games.
This video pointing out the facts, not choosing a side, I believe will help further the emulation debate on reddit and other places. Misinterpretations of the law are prevalent in any law-based discussion with non-lawyers, so it’s nice to see much of it cleared up.
I can only hope this video gains traction.
Is Nintendo suing dolphin now?
As someone in the middle of bar prep, I find the issues with emulation so interesting! Really wish I could walk around in a Nintendo lawyer’s head and see how they view all of this. Looking forward to watching this essay
I’ve seen your other videos and they are very good! I can’t wait to watch this later.
Bleem’s ps1 emulator also demostrates how emulation is not illegal. Unfortunately all of those lawsuits caused them to go bankrupt, even if they kept on winning.
This video’s ending validates my thoughts on the matter of pretty much every emulator trying to grow their audience substantially, which is don’t fucking do it. Emulators and any piracy-adjacent projects survive by keeping quiet about their existence and being unaccessible enough that it scares/confuses off those who aren’t tech savvy at all. By trying to put themselves on Steam they’ve both increased visibility and accessibility, and have endangered not only their own project but potentially emulation at large.
Is it possible that Nintendo added the request/demand to retain communications regarding Dolphin suspecting that Team Dolphin might attempt some kind of legal action against Nintendo for interference?
Thanks you so much for doing the community a service with your videos. You are eloquent and concise with your speech, and you are a pleasure to listen to.
So, for anybody that doesn’t know what’s going on with Nintendo and Dolphin, here’s the gist: To emulate Wii games, you need keys(don’t know about GameCube but I know the Wii needs them) actual Wii consoles will already have them and to *legally* emulate, you’d have to extract the keys from your Wii. At least that’s how it’s SUPPOSED to go. What Dolphin did instead(and who knows how long they’ve been doing this) was illegally including the keys in their application. Now, Nintendo isn’t suing dolphin. What they’re doing instead is actually a DMCA. So for once, Nintendo isn’t actually being a dick to emulation because they actually are in the right to do this, and Dolphin is in the wrong. Dolphin has the choice of taking the keys out of their app and publishing on steam(although publishing it is a *maybe*), taking the keys out of their app and not going on steam, or just dying, although I doubt the last one is the route they’re gonna take. Usually I’m against a lot of decisions Nintendo makes, but I’m actually on their side for this one since they aren’t trying to kill Dolphin. All they’re doing is essentially saying “Bro, what the fuck. Fix yo shit and we’re good… probably”. Of course I could be wrong about this since I’m just going off of what I’ve read about it. Please correct me on anything wrong.
Bit of an odd request, but would you be willing to upload the ending song as its own video? I’d like it in my music playlist.
Putting Dolphin on Steam was a monumentally stupid idea.
This is a really good video, as always, your content is really interesting and cuts through a lot of the fluff. The ending of your video about how the industry doesn’t like emulation, despite using it for re-releases and other things is a massive conundrum that they probably don’t want undone from where it is now because it’s probably ‘solved’ as is.
I know this is beside the point, but I find Valve’s role in all this very interesting and it is not something I even considered up to now.
If i was in charge of Valve, i’d just tell Nintendo off, tell them to get over it and give them the middle finger over how the Steam Deck is better than the Switch. Emulation is legal. Get over it.
It’s so cowardly how Valve cotowed to Nintendo’s demand.
I love that you talked about this from the legal level, but I want to mention something from a consumer level real quick: cost.
I’m a broke college kid, and don’t have too much disposable income. I have a crappy laptop, an phone, and a switch. Those are the only three methods by which I can play videogames realistically. I want to emphasize that buying lots of games on their official hardware is something I just can’t *afford* to do most of the time. I can’t afford to buy a GBA, or an OG PlayStation, or any of these older consoles alongside the games I’d want to play them on. I’ve got gas, and food, and textbooks to pay for.
Emulation, then, is really my only good option to play all these games. Yes, I know they’re illegal- I’m playing games without having paid for them, duh. However, the other option isn’t that I’d pay for them. It’s that I’d just stop gaming in general. I would have never known that I liked the Xenoblade Chronicles style of gameplay had I never played XC1. I then was able to buy XC2 and XC3 with spare cash I had when they came out, and I’ve loved them.
This is part of why I got so immensely frustrated with Dolphin trying to launch on Steam. This was never going to work- of COURSE they’d get themselves blown off the platform. Their goal shouldn’t be to search for a larger audience- pretty much everyone in the emulator scene knows about Dolphin, and it wasn’t hard to do. It wasn’t even Windows exclusive if you knew about WINE. If this leads to definitive legal action, I’ll be immensely disappointed. The entire gist was that we kept our heads down, and Big Gaming^(TM) would let us be. Don’t actively publicize or try to make money. This was simply to play older games that companies weren’t making easy to play on their platforms. Nothing more, nothing less.