Discord has reportedly taken action against servers hosting Nintendo Switch emulators Suyu and Sudachi, along with disabling the accounts of their respective developers. As reported by The Verge, developers of these emulators received communication from Discord citing violations of intellectual property. In a statement to The Verge, Discord mentioned compliance with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requests and a court-ordered injunction for takedown.
“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. In this instance, there was also a court-ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order.” The situation raises questions about whether the Discord channels themselves were directly infringing on IP rights. The developers had claimed to take measures to avoid Nintendo’s attention, yet it’s possible that individuals within the channels shared content breaching Discord’s policy.
Discord’s Copyright and IP Policy indicates removal of specific infringing content and potential account disablement for repeat offenders. Sudachi’s developer, Jarrod Norwell, expressed surprise at the sudden removal of his account with limited justification. This move by Discord could be seen as precautionary, possibly to avoid further legal complications with Nintendo. The company’s strict stance on protecting intellectual property is evident, especially amidst the ongoing legal issues surrounding the Switch emulator Yuzu.
It remains to be seen whether more details will emerge regarding the situation. For now, it appears that Discord is ensuring compliance with legal directives, potentially to steer clear of any confrontation with Nintendo. The recent actions indicate a proactive approach to enforcing policies, but the broader implications for emulator developers and Discord communities are yet to unfold.
Sounds very understandable.
Does it though? Even though yes Discord is a private company and can do what they want. Free Speech includes discussing how to do “illegal” stuff, (which emulators are debatable) even detailing the steps to take .
This is over reach on Discords part, and is just either to cover their butt or defend their multi-billion dollar friend
Could be perhaps. Is that really true for it for them to care much about greed?
emulators are not illegal, no matter how much tendies want you to believe it
I wonder why Nintendo suddenly began to be this aggressive with switch emulation yuzu was already really good like 3 years ago, makes you wonder if this has to do with the next Nintendo system, maybe it has a similar architecture to its predecessor like the Wii/GNC and it could easily be reverse engineered
I would guess it’s related to how many people downloaded Tears of the Kingdom and played it on a Switch emulator, and how much game sales Nintendo might have missed out on from that. At least that was an initially stated reason for Nintendo’s case against Yuzu, from what I remember reading.
The reason is maybe even simpler I think: emulation doesn’t sell consoles and even less games, which is a double loss for them, moreover the scale of emulation has continued to grow, they wanted to stop the bleeding
Now that you have mentioned it, this is probably about the rise of gaming handhelds and emulation on those systems, tears of the kingdom was running pretty good on the steam deck, and the prices of that console is going for really cheap now
Corporations using money to shape society the way that fits them.
Touch grass numbnuts