Nintendo has recently sent Valve and the Dolphin Emulator development team a DMCA takedown notice blocking the release of the GameCube and Wii Dolphin Emulator on Steam. The Dolphin Emulator had been released for use on other platforms and was due to be released on Valve's Steam service in the second quarter of 2023.

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However, Nintendo recently sent out a DMCA takedown notice to Valve to be passed on to the Dolphin development team, which stated that the Dolphin Emulator violated Nintendo's rights as per the provision of the DCMA relating to anti-circumvention. According to Nintendo, the way the emulator works means that it makes use of certain cryptographic keys without Nintendo's authorization.

dolphin emulator entire gamecube library

In a blog post, the Dolphin Emulator development team explain that they have been forced to indefinitely postpone the release of Dolphin on Steam. They say that they are investigating their options on the matter, and will reach out with more information soon. This is not the first time a game and console developer has acted to block the use of emulators in this way. For instance, Microsoft employed measures to prevent emulators from being used on Xbox consoles. For the most part, however, emulators have been given quite a bit of leniency, as what they do is not necessarily illegal.

While game console emulators have previously been ruled in legal cases to not be in violation of such laws as copyright infringement laws, Nintendo's anti-circumvention argument is based around a different principle. If the case is brought to court and Nintendo wins, this could possibly result in the creation of a new precedent regarding the use of emulators. Strangely, however, Nintendo has not seemed to take issue with the Dolphin Emulator's use or functions before, which raises the question of why the company chose to do so now, even though releasing the emulator on Steam would not necessarily be particularly different from releasing it on another console or service.

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Sources: PC Gamer, Dolphin Emulator