Comment by fuu_dev
2 years ago
DMCA § 1201 makes reverse engineering modern consoles illegal.
Any modern game console has some form of decryption, which can be argued to prevent access.
This is when we run into the chicken/egg problem because you can't write emulation without violating 1201. It is also in part the argumentation Nintendo used in the yuzu case.
One argument that I’d like to see made is that DMCA takedown requests, which are intended to enforce copyright is the wrong enforcement mechanism because the 9th Circuit, in SONY v. CONNECTIX said that the functional aspects of emulation can only be protected under patent law.
Ok, what if the emulator that is distributed is not functional, but to make it into a functional emulator, you have to (1) compile it, OR (2) make small modifications to it (that are distributed through a different channel), or both.
Not just modern consoles. Nintendo has had ‘security’ hardware built in since the NES (the CIC chip)
The difference is those security chips were used to prevent unlicensed games, not to prevent the games from being played on unlicensed consoles (emulators).
A NES clone without a CIC will play games fine.