Nintendo Attorney breaks down on what makes Emulation Illegal - No emulating your bing bing wahoo games, filthy gaijin!

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2024 was a big year for Nintendo's emulator takedowns, with the likes of Yuzu and Ryujinx both biting the dust after facing the company's wrath. Now, at a recent lecture hosted by Japan’s Association of Copyright for Computer Software, Nintendo lawyer Koji Nishiura has explained the technicalities of when an emulator is considered illegal and why the Big N has so many in the crosshairs.

As reported by Denfaminicogamer, Nishiura — the deputy general manager of Nintendo's IP division and patent attorney — explained that there's a difference in legality between the emulator itself and its uses: "While you can’t immediately claim that an emulator is illegal in itself, it can become illegal depending on how it’s used" (translated by Automaton).

One of the key uses that has set Nintendo's alarm bells ringing in the past is when an emulator bypasses a console's "technical prevention methods" like encryption, says Nishiura. If an emulator does away with specific security measures like this, it is in breach of Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act and you can expect a takedown to ensue.

Another sticking point is in how the emulator imitates a device. Copying a device's specific programmes is a big no-no (not the legal term), according to Nishiura, and can constitute copyright infringement if it's caught in the act. Similarly, if the emulator offers links to download pirated games, it can be considered a "reach app" and also be hit with copyright infringement.

According to Automaton, Nishiura referred to the issue of illegally downloading games as a problem for all developers, not just Nintendo — citing a 2009 lawsuit where the Big N was joined by 50 other parties to takedown the Game Backup Device, a tool used to download pirated DS games. This, Nishiura states, is another big reason for the repeated takedowns: Nintendo doesn't want its software being played via illegal means, and it wants to extend that protection to its wider devs.


As a reminder, last year saw two high-profile emulator lawsuits from Nintendo. Yuzu and Citra creators TropicHaze were forced to cough up $2.4 million in damages and shut up shop in March, while Ryujinx was forced offline in October, with Nintendo officially taking ownership of the emulator's domain a month later. The above stipulations suggest Nintendo is like a well-oiled machine with these takedowns now, so we wouldn't expect these to be the last emulation lawsuits we see.

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Basement Dwelling Dork said:
Another sticking point is in how the emulator imitates a device. Copying a device's specific programmes is a big no-no (not the legal term), according to Nishiura, and can constitute copyright infringement if it's caught in the act. Similarly, if the emulator offers links to download pirated games, it can be considered a "reach app" and also be hit with copyright infringement.
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I've always heard that emulators are legal as long as they don't directly copy the console's code. I don't think there are many that do this and developers in the past have been pretty careful about that. I've also never downloaded an emulator from its official site and also saw copyrighted ROMs offered alongside it. I don't think any of the ROM sites I've used the most offered emulators either. I know there are ones that do. But it's best to keep those things separate in order to avoid problems.

Basement Dwelling Dork said:
According to Automaton, Nishiura referred to the issue of illegally downloading games as a problem for all developers, not just Nintendo — citing a 2009 lawsuit where the Big N was joined by 50 other parties to takedown the Game Backup Device, a tool used to download pirated DS games. This, Nishiura states, is another big reason for the repeated takedowns: Nintendo doesn't want its software being played via illegal means, and it wants to extend that protection to its wider devs.
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It's a problem for recent releases and games still widely commercially available. But pirating some 20 year old DS game that is not available for physical or digital purchase anymore isn't hurting Nintendo. Protecting IP may be important. But when that IP is abandoned or can no longer be legitimately obtained then what do you expect? Paying inflated prices for secondhand games that will one day no longer be playable anyway as hardware breaks down, discs rot and it becomes harder to repair everything?

Piracy has become the best way to preserve media. Whether these media related companies realise it or not we're saving their work for future generations to enjoy. If they want to get with the program they should make more media available at a fair price. I'm not a fan of Nintendo's current system. I miss the old E Shop.
 
I pay for Switch Online, and it has an absolutely embarrassing number of classic titles available after all this time. They're just ROMs you faggots. Add them all to the service.

I can even get a game like Nintendo World Championship that lists everything I remember, but I can't get a fraction of those games available to me? Fuck off.

I love the Big N, but I will pirate.
 
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Maurice Maine said:
But didn't Nintendo tell me that there's no such thing as a Nintendo?
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I'm not sure if that's true anymore, it was when they were super-autistic about the Nintendo Entertainment System, who could sell them, and so on. That being said, it was still used into the 2000s when they did the Nintendo Gateway System for hotels and airlines to some extent.
 
Basement Dwelling Dork said:
If an emulator does away with specific security measures like this, it is in breach of Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act and you can expect a takedown to ensue.
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I know that it's not but I'm just going to pretend this line proves Nintendo is still irrationally assmad at Wisdom Tree.
 
Pictured below, Nintendo's attorney.
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Maurice Maine said:
But didn't Nintendo tell me that there's no such thing as a Nintendo?
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Nintendo There is no such thing 2.png
 
Woe-B-Gon (TM) said:
I know that it's not but I'm just going to pretend this line proves Nintendo is still irrationally assmad at Wisdom Tree.
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I find this 'Japan Unfair Competition Prevention Act' ironic since the Japs systematically copied anything they could from the 50s to the 80s. They copied the Regency TR-1 and Raytheon pocket transistor radios to build an empire in the far east. And the radio makers were like 'meh whatever' until they realized their fuck-up. But it was too late, Sony became an empire and with the cash they built amazing shit like the Trinitron. THEN we got the Japanese cars... which were poor copies of US products. Toyota especially copied Ford models like the Falcon for their Corona and by god yes, it was called Toyota Corona. And most famously the Mustang for the Celica. Then they got their shit together and the rest was history.

 
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Sorry Nintendo, but I already pirated all your old stuff years ago. You're always playing fuckfuck games with your back catalogue, and your new shit is all trash.
 
Here's an idea Nintendo, you stupid fucking squid eating, hyphen eyed fucking niggers, give me a functional copy of Pokemon Black 2 or White 2, with all the features included and unlockable and I will stop emulating your games. What? You can't do that? It's completely locked behind means that don't exist anymore and you don't want to spend money to be able to fix it?

Then suck my fucking dick, japniggers.

PS. Also you fucking faggots, this is for Square Enix. I remember a few years ago you faggots released a game for Japan only called Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, which came with loads of extra content not in the original game and an entire extra game with RE: Chain Of Memories. It wasn't available in the US for the longest time outside of pirating which people did do. Square Enix eventually noticed the interest and didn't just port Final Mix, you faggots double dipped and split up RE: Chain of Memories and KH2FM into two SEPARATE games. You faggots double dipped and got away with the extra revenue and you owe all that marketing to YouTubers pirating your unreleased game. Screw you faggots, if you took two seconds to take advantage of emulation, you'd realize free labor is a good gauge of what fans want and you can even use it to "GASP", make money.
 
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It sounds like Nishiura's argument relies entirely on Japanese law, not on international conventions or US law. I'm an American and we made our opinion on Japanese law clear on 8/6/1945, and again on 8/9/1945. Your emperor's not a god, Mario is from Brooklyn, Gunpei Yokoi was murdered, and most of all, Byuu's not dead and he will continue releasing emulators until no one needs to buy your overpriced, underpowered consoles ever again.
 
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