11 ms·

Agreed. A lot of people here seem to think Nintendo would not claim it illegal without the circumvention code or wouldn't write a letter saying that. This is

Agreed. A lot of people here seem to think Nintendo would not claim it illegal without the circumvention code or wouldn't write a letter saying that. This is totally wrong and shows a complete lack of historical understanding of Nintendo and their legal threats and lawsuits going back decades. Nintendo has repeatedly sued even when they lose. Nintendo has even sued companies for making unlicensed games. Not homebrew, but commercially successful games. Others seem to believe valve would suddenly be okay with it without circumvention code. This seems naive at best, delusional at worst. That letter includes a threat to valve on distribution. As above, Nintendo isn't going to say "it's fine now I guess". They would happily sue valve with or without the code. Valve may want to partner with them someday. Valve may be better than most but it seems very unlikely for them to want to die on this hill. The good will does not seem worth the trouble.

josephcsible 3y ago
> Nintendo has repeatedly sued even when they lose. Why don't we have laws to punish companies like Nintendo for this kind of harassment? What if we had one like "if a copyright lawsuit is found to be frivolous or filed in bad faith, the copyright for all of the plaintiff's works involved in the case is forfeit to the defendant"?
- flutas 3y ago
  We do. They're called Anti-SLAPP laws[0], but iirc they really only let you stop the current lawsuit. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...
  - DannyBee 3y ago
    SLAPP laws would not help since they are about public participation - like for example, you oppose a permit for someone down the street, and they sue you for doing so. Or you express an opinion on facebook about a political figure, and they sue you for defamation. What we are talking about here would not be considered a SLAPP in most states.
- johnnyanmac 3y ago
  >if a copyright lawsuit is found to be frivolous or filed in bad faith, the copyright for all of the plaintiff's works involved in the case is forfeit to the defendant That sounds like grounds for trolling in the other direction. Can you imagine some new IP taking off but then being grabbed by some asset flipping company that can outspend the creator?
greggsy 3y ago
> Valve may want to partner with them someday. This aspect is totally lost on so many people. Even apple partnered with them for games on their own platform. It’s fiscally irresponsible for company directors to close that door in preference over a hobby emulator, while pretending that it isn’t intended to infringe on copyright.
- Folcon 3y ago
  > It’s fiscally irresponsible for company directors to close that door in preference over a hobby emulator, while pretending that it isn’t intended to infringe on copyright. I'm not sure if this applies in Valve's case, as I understand it, Valve is privately owned and held by Gabe Newell and what he says goes, so really the question is does he want to do this or not?
  - henriquez 3y ago
    Right, Valve is privately owned so they are free to be fiscally irresponsible, but they aren’t. Burning bridges with Nintendo is just bad business.
    - me_me_me 3y ago
      Give me a single reason why nintendo would even begin to consider partnering with valve. Nintendo is famous for its closed and closely controlled ecosystem. Partnering with apple to release a mobile game is a bad (outlier) example as nintendo has no capabilities to release their own phone. Why would Nintendo invite/open competition with steam deck? Why would they make it easier to pirate their games and give steam cut on the sales via steam store. All the while nintendo has their own console their own store. Its like apple allowed android store on iOS. Sure they could do it but why would they?
      - lapetitejort 3y ago
        You could have asked this question about Sega in the 90s. Why would Sega ever consider partnering with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony?? And then the Dreamcast tanked and they pivoted to software only. Other platforms were there for them to port all their games. If Sega had done something more boneheaded than "Sega does what Nintendon't" then Nintendo could have told them to pound sand and they wouldn't have a successful platform on which to save their business. Will Nintendo suffer the same fate? Highly unlikely. The Switch is doing great, the successor will probably do great. But then again, so did the Sega Genesis. There's no need to burn bridges.
shagie 3y ago
> Valve may want to partner with them someday. https://www.nintendo.com/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher&softwarePublisher=Valve+Corporation https://www.nintendo.com/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher... Partnerships can go the other way too.

josephcsible 3y ago

> Nintendo has repeatedly sued even when they lose. Why don't we have laws to punish companies like Nintendo for this kind of harassment? What if we had one like "if a copyright lawsuit is found to be frivolous or filed in bad faith, the copyright for all of the plaintiff's works involved in the case is forfeit to the defendant"?

flutas 3y ago
We do. They're called Anti-SLAPP laws[0], but iirc they really only let you stop the current lawsuit. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_publ...
- DannyBee 3y ago
  SLAPP laws would not help since they are about public participation - like for example, you oppose a permit for someone down the street, and they sue you for doing so. Or you express an opinion on facebook about a political figure, and they sue you for defamation. What we are talking about here would not be considered a SLAPP in most states.
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>if a copyright lawsuit is found to be frivolous or filed in bad faith, the copyright for all of the plaintiff's works involved in the case is forfeit to the defendant That sounds like grounds for trolling in the other direction. Can you imagine some new IP taking off but then being grabbed by some asset flipping company that can outspend the creator?

greggsy 3y ago

> Valve may want to partner with them someday. This aspect is totally lost on so many people. Even apple partnered with them for games on their own platform. It’s fiscally irresponsible for company directors to close that door in preference over a hobby emulator, while pretending that it isn’t intended to infringe on copyright.

Folcon 3y ago
> It’s fiscally irresponsible for company directors to close that door in preference over a hobby emulator, while pretending that it isn’t intended to infringe on copyright. I'm not sure if this applies in Valve's case, as I understand it, Valve is privately owned and held by Gabe Newell and what he says goes, so really the question is does he want to do this or not?
- henriquez 3y ago
  Right, Valve is privately owned so they are free to be fiscally irresponsible, but they aren’t. Burning bridges with Nintendo is just bad business.
  - me_me_me 3y ago
    Give me a single reason why nintendo would even begin to consider partnering with valve. Nintendo is famous for its closed and closely controlled ecosystem. Partnering with apple to release a mobile game is a bad (outlier) example as nintendo has no capabilities to release their own phone. Why would Nintendo invite/open competition with steam deck? Why would they make it easier to pirate their games and give steam cut on the sales via steam store. All the while nintendo has their own console their own store. Its like apple allowed android store on iOS. Sure they could do it but why would they?
    - lapetitejort 3y ago
      You could have asked this question about Sega in the 90s. Why would Sega ever consider partnering with Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony?? And then the Dreamcast tanked and they pivoted to software only. Other platforms were there for them to port all their games. If Sega had done something more boneheaded than "Sega does what Nintendon't" then Nintendo could have told them to pound sand and they wouldn't have a successful platform on which to save their business. Will Nintendo suffer the same fate? Highly unlikely. The Switch is doing great, the successor will probably do great. But then again, so did the Sega Genesis. There's no need to burn bridges.

shagie 3y ago

> Valve may want to partner with them someday. https://www.nintendo.com/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher&softwarePublisher=Valve+Corporation https://www.nintendo.com/search/#cat=gme&f=softwarePublisher... Partnerships can go the other way too.