FINDINGS OF FACT:
-
Nintendo of America Inc. markets and distributes electronic video game consoles, games, and accessories developed by Nintendo Co., Ltd. (together, “Nintendo”), including the Nintendo Switch.
-
The Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch video games contain technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works and protect rights of copyright owners, including Nintendo (the “Technological Measures”). Nintendo owns valid copyrights in works protected by the Technological Measures, including its video games and the Nintendo Switch operating system.
-
Yuzu, a video game emulator, circumvents the Technological Measures and allows for the play of encrypted Nintendo Switch games on devices other than a Nintendo Switch. For example, Yuzu executes code that decrypts Nintendo Switch video games (including component files) immediately before and during runtime using unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch cryptographic keys. Yuzu is primarily designed to circumvent and play Nintendo Switch games. In the ordinary course of its operation with those games, Yuzu requires the Nintendo Switch’s proprietary cryptographic keys to gain access to and play Nintendo Switch games.
-
Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures.
NOW THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
- Plaintiff is awarded judgment against Defendant in the amount of US$2,400,000.
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that:
- A permanent injunction is entered against Defendant enjoining it and its members, agents, servants, employees, independent contractors, successors, assigns, and all those acting in privity or under its control from:
a. Offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in Yuzu or any source code or features of Yuzu;
b. Offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in other software or devices that circumvent Nintendo’s technical protection measures, including without limitation by using unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s proprietary cryptographic keys to decrypt Nintendo’s video games (or component files);
c. Directly or indirectly infringing, or causing, enabling, facilitating, encouraging, promoting, inducing, or participating in the infringement of, any of Nintendo’s copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property, whether now in existence or hereafter created, including but not limited to the unauthorized reproduction, display, public performance, or distribution of any of Nintendo’s copyrighted video games or operating systems, which includes the emulation of Nintendo’s video games;
d. Committing any other violation of Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, worldwide, whether now existing or hereafter created; and
e. Effecting assignments or transfers, forming new entities or associations, or using any other device for the purpose of circumventing or otherwise avoiding the prohibitions set forth in subparagraphs (a)-(c).
- The Court further enjoins all third parties acting in active concert and participation with Defendant from:
a. Offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in Yuzu or any source code or features of Yuzu; and
b. Offering to the public, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in other software or devices that circumvent Nintendo’s technical protection measures, including without limitation by using unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s proprietary cryptographic keys to decrypt Nintendo’s video games (or component files).
-
The Court further enjoins Defendant, its members, officers, agents, servants, employees, independent contractors, successors, assigns, and all third parties acting in active concert and participation with Defendant—including but not limited to any domain name registrars or registries holding or listing Defendant’s Website—from supporting or facilitating access to any or all domain names, URLs, websites (including, without limitation, YUZU-EMU.ORG), including any successor websites, chatrooms, and other social media websites or apps through which Defendant or its members trafficked or continue to traffic in circumvention devices or software that circumvent Plaintiff’s technological protection measures, through which Defendant or its members infringed or continue to infringe Plaintiff’s rights under the Copyright Act, or which themselves infringe Plaintiff’s rights under the DMCA or Copyright Act.
-
The Court further orders that Defendant and its members, officers, agents, servants, employees, independent contractors, successors, assigns, attorneys, and all third parties acting in active concert or participation with Defendant—including but not limited to any domain name registrars or registries holding or listing Defendant’s Website:
a. surrender, and permanently cease to use, the domain name YUZU- EMU.ORG, any variant or successor thereof controlled by Defendant or its members, and any other website or system that Defendant or its members owns or controls, directly or indirectly, that involves or harms Nintendo’s Intellectual Property; and
b. to the extent the domain is under Defendant or its members’ custody or control, or under the control of registrars or registries with notice of this Order, immediately transfer the domain name YUZU-EMU.ORG, any variant or successor thereof controlled by Defendant or its members, and any other website or system that Defendant or its members own or control, directly or indirectly, that involves Nintendo’s Intellectual Property, to Plaintiff’s control.
-
The Court further orders, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. §§ 503 & 1203, upon Nintendo’s election and to the extent controlled by Defendant or its members, the destruction by deletion of all circumvention devices, including all copies of Yuzu, all circumvention tools used for developing or using Yuzu—such as TegraRcmGUI, Hekate, Atmosphère, Lockpick_RCM, NDDumpTool, nxDumpFuse, and TegraExplorer, and all copies of Nintendo cryptographic keys including the prod.keys, and all other electronic material within Defendant or its members’ custody, possession, or control that violate Nintendo’s rights under the DMCA or infringe copyrights owned or exclusively licensed by Nintendo.
-
The Court further orders, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. §§ 503 & 1203, upon Nintendo’s election and to the extent controlled by Defendant or its members, the handing over to Nintendo of all physical circumvention devices that circumvent or attempt to circumvent the Technological Measures, and of modified Nintendo hardware, including modified Nintendo Switch consoles.
-
With the exception of paragraphs 5 and 6 herein, the Court further enjoins Defendant and its members from destroying, transferring, altering, moving, returning, concealing, or in any manner hiding evidence relevant to the matters set forth herein—including any and all video game consoles, video games (or constituent elements thereof, such as video game files), ROMs, and video game emulators (and any digital files comprising the same) that infringe Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, and/or which were used in connection with developing or using Yuzu—unless authorized by Nintendo in writing. Defendant and its members are also enjoined from allowing evidence to be destroyed, altered, or concealed by third parties if the evidence is under Defendant or its members’ possession, custody, or control.
-
This permanent injunction constitutes a binding court order, and any violations of this order by Defendant or its members will subject them to the full scope of this Court’s contempt authority, including punitive, coercive, and monetary sanctions.
-
This permanent injunction is binding against Defendant and its members worldwide, without regard to the territorial scope of the specific intellectual property rights asserted in the Complaint of the above-captioned case, and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction wherever Defendant, its members, its assets, or its members’ assets may be found.
-
This Court shall maintain continuing jurisdiction over this action for the purpose of enforcing this Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction. Plaintiff is not required to post any bond or security in connection with the Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction, and Defendant has permanently, irrevocably, and fully waived any right to request a bond or security.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Judgment be entered in this matter in accordance with the terms set forth above, and that the clerk be, and hereby is, directed to close this matter.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
How was it this fast? What happened?
They got a lawyer. The lawyer looked at their books and their records and recommended they settle asap. Yuzu devs probably had DMs openly talking about piracy of TotK being good for Yuzu, which would come out in discovery. Also, the meat of this case hinged on pretty technical aspects around Yuzu breaking Nintendo’s hardware protections on the Switch. Arguing that they had the right to do so would be possible (unlike what Nintendo and its shills would have you believe) but it would be long and expensive. Coupled with the (probable) DMs of piracy, going to court and losing would be a major risk.
What this doesn’t mean is that emulation is illegal - because this didn’t go to court. That’s exactly what I was pointing out in this comment, when I was ranting against Twitter geniuses who expected Yuzu to fucking take Nintendo to court and WIN.
Does this affect Ryujinx as well or are they not doing the same thing Yuzu was?
Ryujinx does the same thing so I think they're in danger too - but IIRC they shut down any discussion of TotK when it leaked and at the very least try to maintain a teeny bit of opsec, which should be beneficial if Nintendo comes after them.
this is what I will never get, why the hell didn't the yuzu devs stay 1000000% anon, because nintendo are a bunch of ravenous dogs that ruin people's lives for anything that makes them angry.
How exactly did they think that was supposed to happen? They engaged in/enabled piracy (and I'm sure Nintendo would have argued this) - which is illegal - a fact beyond a shadow of a doubt. The only way you win a piracy case is by proving you didn't do it. Did they expect this to make it to the supreme court who would then repeal copyright and antipiracy laws? I can't imagine the naivete required to believe you can one-weird-trick your way out of this slam-dunk case.
They also had a patreon paywalled version of Yuzu that brought in 30k a month, so the damages of actually losing the case would be nuclear. Last time I heard about a team like this winning was Bleem! back in the 90s. Bleem! went bankrupt and they SWEPT the case that Sony had against them.
How does Yuzu have 2.4 million to pay the settlement but no money or will to pay for lawyers?
i doubt theyll be paying 2.4 mil in a lump sum.
Paying 2.4m to lawyers doesn't guarantee you won't be paying more. Gary Bowser just did web admin stuff (for another project) and is going to be dealing with nintendo forever.
I am not a lawyer, but if you pay me 2.4 million dollars I guarantee to win in any legal case. This is a standing offer to the users of this siteforum.
Some dude in another thread says they won't have to pay because they're an LLC. I don't know if that's true though.
Removed by mod
Bribed a judge.
Many common law places have a mechanism called a summary judgment. It's an expedited hearing you ask for when you think that your case is so strong and the other side's is so non-existent that you can conceed all the facts (i.e. accept for sake of argument that your opponent's version of events is completely true) and still win.