Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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Nintendo is suing Tropic Haze, the creator of the Yuzu Switch emulator for home computer and Android.

The lawsuit in question is pretty sneaky, dealing not with emulation itself, but with the way Yuzu allows users to circumvent Nintendo's copy protection. Never mind whether Yuzu has other, legal uses, the fact that the emulator can potentially be used for piracy is enough for Nintendo to label it "unlawful".

The word "unlawful", though, doesn't strictly mean the same as "illegal". Something which is illegal is against the law, while something which is unlawful is not strictly against the law because there is no law preventing it.

Nintendo's lawsuit takes advantage of one of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's most controversial passages, which bans the circumvention of copy protection even in circumstances where making a copy is legal. It's effectively a loophole - one that successive lawmakers have attempted to close, to no avail, and one which coincidentally serves the needs of big business copyright holders very well.

Thus, Nintendo is arguing that Yuzu can potentially be used for something which might be construed as against the law (although the law is not clearly defined enough to prove this) while using a contested legal hiccup that by all rights, shouldn't still be on the books.

Sources for this video:
scribd.com/document/709016504/Nintendo-of-America-Inc-v-Tropic-Haze-LLC-1-24-Cv-00082-No-1-D-R-I-Feb-26-2024
govinfo.gov/link/plaw/105/public/304?link-type=pdf&.pdf
oed.com/search/dictionary/?scope=Entries&q=unlawful
lbc.co.uk/radio/special-shows/the-mystery-hour/is-it-unlawful-or-illegal

Music by Roa: soundcloud.com/roa_music1031

Emulated homebrew games shown in this video (in order):
coria.itch.io/coria
videogamestorytime.itch.io/froggykong
imanolea.itch.io/last-crown-warriors-demo
aiguanachein.itch.io/powa
playinstinct.itch.io/my-friendly-little-island
tangramgames.itch.io/tobutobugirl
videogamestorytime.itch.io/friendly-fire
gumpyfunction.itch.io/super-jacked-up-tomato-face-johnson
benjelter.itch.io/unearthed
gumpyfunction.itch.io/cupid
mrpapshmir.itch.io/enceladus
filipe-bianchin.itch.io/fix-my-heart
patmorita.itch.io/hermano-game-boy