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Imagineer accused of shipping mGBA emulator for commercial use and ignoring EULA

cormack12

Gold Member
mod edit: title did not reflect the actuality of the issue. Nintendo would be in breach of EULA because of Imagineer, not the other way round

Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2...ftware_on_the_eshop_by_gba_emulator_developer

Last year, Imagineer published Medarot Classics Plus on the Nintendo Switch in Japan, a selection of titles from the Medabots series, some of which were originally released on the Game Boy Advance.

As you might expect, Imagineer has used emulation to bring these titles to Switch, but it would appear that the company has failed to properly credit the author of one of the emulators used, the Game Boy Advance emulator mGBA. mGBA author endrift points to the fact that the title "contains strings matching settings names unique to [mGBA]" as evidence.

However, that's not the issue here – as the Video Game History Foundation's Frank Cifaldi states, mGBA's End User Licence Agreement allows for commercial use. The problem is that the credits for the emulator have been intentionally removed, which, according to endrift, means that Nintendo is "shipping a pirated emulator in a third party title".

HqhIae.jpg


How this has happened is anyone's guess, but the fact that mGBA's EULA allows for commercial usage makes the fact that Imagineer didn't approach endrift all the more baffling. The emulator's GitHub page even provides an email address for the commercial licensing of the emulator.

screenshot-2021-05-17-at-3-41-52-pm.original.png
 
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Soodanim

Gold Member
What a strange situation this is. I doubt it will go anywhere, as one person isn’t likely to have or spend the money on a lawyer who wants to go up against Nintendo.

I would say this might make Nintendo more upset with emulation, but they already both use and take down quite a bit.

Edit: it actually has very little to do with Nintendo
 
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jigglet

Banned
I totally see Nintendo being too proud to credit a third party, while also being unwilling to pour resources in this.
Not a good thing.

But it's an easy thing to defend against: just say you're a cheap asshole. Bulletproof, bitch.

Nintendo should do the honorable thing and file a DCMA against them too.
 
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Soodanim

Gold Member
This is an extremely misleading title. Nintendo isn't accused of ignoring the emulator's EULA, Imagineer is.
I missed the part where Nintendo were nothing but the platform owner on this one. Fucking article.

Now I think about it, it’s unclear how these strings and settings have been noticed. Did someone go through the code to find telltale signs of mGBA, or are they easily visible within the game as customisation options?
 

Miles708

Member
But it's an easy thing to defend against: just say you're a cheap asshole. Bulletproof, bitch.

Nintendo should do the honorable thing and file a DCMA against them too.

I've just found it funny and ironic that Nintendo secretly grabbed emulator software after cracking down on emulation for years.

That said, apparently this thread isn't even about Nintendo so I retract my previous statement.
 

MagnesG

Banned
Extremely ironic considering legally you would have to have access to modded Switch with that digital game being dumped using it in the first place to check out those settings strings lol.

Most probably he/she would have obtained a pirated copy considering the developer.
 

Hugare

Member
This endrift dude lost all reason when he mentioned Nintendo

Nintendo has anything to do with this. This is on the developer.

Nintendo is not gonna look into the code of every goddamn game on the store

Wont end pretty for him if he tries to sue Nintendo
 
Nintendo does approve software for the eShop, right? Makes me wonder what, if anything, they knew, though I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.
 

PhoenixTank

Member
EULA? Not sure where the first chap got that from. Those are about the developers/publisher's license to the user... thus End User Licence Agreement.


This looks like Imagineer are in breach of the MPL 2 license. The License itself, Copyright notices for endrift & any other contributors are meant to be included and any modified MPL source files are should be made available.
So not quite "just credit".
 
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JSoup

Banned
We've been down this hole with the Retron thing. Emulator creators can crow to high heaven about this, but unless they have the money to fight it, it's a non-starter. This is ignoring the inherit difficulty of making a legal argument about use on free-to-use software with dozens of hands in the dough, some completely gone from the internet at this point.
 
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