[jamesear]

The only comment of someone saying they had used Yuzu for piracy has been flagged, and is no longer visible.

This might HN readers a skewed perspective on how much Yuzu is used for piracy.

I have many acquaintances/friends in different circles, with the means to pay, who use Yuzu for piracy.

There are dedicated forums of people who coordinate on how to do this.

Emulation is great as a means to study or play backups, but its also fair that Nintendo has legitimate business interest in curtailing this.

IANAL, and have no idea how their case against Yuzu developers will go.

[zucker42]

Hammers are used for theft, as well. Even if Nintendo's business would benefit from emulators not existing[1], it doesn't mean we should ban emulators (or create laws which allow multinationals to sue open source emulator projects out of existence).

[1] which is not necessarily true

[jamesear]

I understand your argument, and perhaps a similar one will be made to the courts.

For some people, if a tool has a single legitimate user, and otherwise haa illegitimate users, then the tool should be allowed.

For others, if the tool is mostly used for illegitimate means, then the tool should be banned.

Where the law lands in this case will be partly based on these values, and the benefits/harms to all parties.

I don't know enough about the case, but I don't think it's as clear cut as a hammer.

[MyFedora]

I don't think Nintendo's argument that Yuzu's primary use case is piracy holds any merit. Nintendo is quite literally a part of the reason why people pirate Switch games they already own.

What do you have to do to legally play Switch games on Yuzu? Oh, idk...

* Jailbreak your Switch.

* Dump your decryption keys.

* Dump your games.

* Never update your Switch ever again.

* Pray Nintendo doesn't shove an update down your throat.

* Void your warranty.

* Hope Nintendo won't brick your Switch.

How many people would use Yuzu legally if it weren't for Nintendo's anti-consumer practices? Nintendo can't just argue that Yuzu is made for piracy when Nintendo pushes people to piracy who legally own the Switch and Switch games in my opinion.

[infotainment]

I feel like you’re undermining your own argument here. Yes, it’s exceedingly complex to “legally” play your own games on Yuzu. This bolsters the argument that Yuzu is primarily targeting users of pirated content, because essentially no one would bother doing all those steps you listed.

[gertop]

Seriously it's just bizarre how obtuse HN can be when it comes to piracy.

Nobody is dumping their own games. Very few buy the switch games they emulate.

The following usual claim is "it's Nintendo's own fault for not releasing their games on PC and Android". What kind of asinine argument is that?

Then there's the "emulation isn't illegal", which is probably the only sound argument.

But that isn't the issue here. The issue is the authors are now making over 500k/yr from their emulator, whose only purpose is to pirate games that are still commercially available.

[zucker42]

> "it's Nintendo's own fault for not releasing their games on PC and Android"

I understand if you disagree with this argument (I don't know if I'd endorse it wholeheartedly), but I don't see how it is asinine. The wider context here is that there are people who believe in "general computing", i.e. the idea that users should retain full control over computing devices and software they buy.

The philosophy of companies of companies like Nintendo is that when you buy a game from them, you are buying the right to play the game in exactly the way they want. If they could make modding illegal, they would (it is in Japan, to my understanding). This runs counter to the idea of general computing, where you should be to play a game you buy in any way you want, including modding, or playing on a different device, etc.

So to return to the point, the argument is that by refusing to sell their games to users of other platforms (as well as their other actions), Nintendo is working against the goal of general computing, and therefore it's not worth feeling sorry for them when people pirate the game. Phrased differently, people who don't own a Switch have no way to play the game besides pirating, and people should be able to buy games separately from devices.

Another fundamental argument here is that hardware/software walled gardens which are enforced by anti-circumvention and copyright laws are basically anti-competitive monopolies.