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Nintendo shuts down Switch emulator Ryujinx
(lemmy.ml)
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I will always say this in these "Nintendo shuts down beloved fan project" threads: why don't the people working on these projects operate anonymously and release via torrent? I feel like I've been reading the same story for 20 years. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone at this point that Nintendo will come after you.
Because emulation is legal. It shouldn't have to be hidden. This was taken through the courts in 2001 with the Sony vs Bleem lawsuit.
What appears to be happening is Nintendo is abusing its power and money to make threats of legal action that these groups just can't afford to fight, even though they haven't done anything illegal. It should be coming as a surprise that Nintendo is coming for them, because this is completely legal, and not some fan game using Nintendo IP (which is what they normally shut down).
Emulation might be legal, but it's software specifically designed to run illegal copies of the games.
I dislike Nintendo, but I can't blame them for taking down that kind of software development. They're still selling many of their old games through their own store for their own emulators. They're perhaps charging way too much for it and/or lock it behind a subscription wall, even if you ever bought the original copies. Absolute garbage business practice, but from the corporate point of view I can see why they go after emulators. Especially since it's easier to take those down than trying to go after all digital emulator copies of the games (if not impossible).
They're probably gonna try and set an example to scare off others trying to make new emulators too.
Edit: lol people really are shooting the messenger here.
Also, the amount of excuses that people have to make backups of their already purchased games is very weak. You damn well know that a vast majority of people don't use it for such reasons, the amount of people that still own original copies, and also have the hardware to even extract software for personal use must be like less than a percentage of the entire community using emulators. They're just people pirating games they never paid for. It's very naive to assume otherwise.
Your not being able to blame them is completely irrelevant. Nintendo can not like stuff all it wants. The question is if it is LEGAL. If it is, and it is, your defense of their actions is a defense of the argument that they should be above the law because they don't like something, and that's an absolutely TERRIBLE position to take. You don't need to white knight for Nintendo. They have more money than God and taking up their fights for them against your own rights as a consumer is so far beyond Stockholm Syndrome that I don't think we even have a word for it yet.
Feel like you failed to read and grasp what I said.
Never said I agreed with what they're doing, I am not white knighting them. I frankly don't give a shit what Nintendo does and doesn't and what they'll lose over it.
I was just stating an observation from a business point of view.
It's also legal to own guns in some countries, doesn't make it legal to use it to just shoot at anything, and it's even more ridiculous to assume that everyone buying/owning guns has good intentions. There are many countries where owning a gun isn't legal, as well as making copies of products you've bought, even for personal backup.
And to believe that people use emulation exclusively for their own backups is insanely naive.
I gave you the benefit of the doubt that maybe I didn't grasp what you said, but reading your reply it seems like I grasped it fine.
Here's the thing. People use emulators for piracy. That is also COMPLETELY and totally irrelevant to the discussion. The right to developing emulators is well-established, and game preservation isn't even the most important consequence. The right to developing emulators is what allows virtualization that forms the backbone of server architecture, as well as running legacy code from old architectures on modern hardware, alleviating the need for thousands of man hours in rewriting tried and tested code. 20 years in the future, when the IoTs stupidity litters millions of homes with inaccessible, useless plastic garbage, emulation of no longer supported control units will be a panacea.
Nintendo is totally free to not like the law, but it is the law, and this pressure to shut down these projects is a flagrant violation of the developers' legal rights, which regardless of the morality of piracy is a disgusting flouting of the legal system.
People use guns to murder, yes. But whether you or I think it's correct or not, the law does not hold gun makers liable for the things their users do with them. We can't just DECIDE that there are exceptions to the law and begin prosecuting or acting as if they are liable. That requires either a new law or an interpretation by a court to set a precedent - not lawyers sending a cease and desist to Smith & Wesson. That is a slippery slope to an absolutely nightmarish dystopia.
There is no justifying this in a "Well, I can see why they did it..." sense any more than in a murder case. The law is clear. The established rights of the developers are clear. The right to make a Switch emulator is NOT Nintendo's right to give or deny like a trademark dispute or the ability to make a fan game. They don't GET a say. The right to make an emulator is explicitly YOURS by LAW. And a giant corporation has taken their money and used it to violate established rights with threat of bankruptcy in violation of that established law. If you believe in the rule of law, no matter what you think of piracy, that should be utterly haunting.
If guns are sold legally, it means that there is the assumption that everyone buying them has good intentions.