Case 1:24-cv-00082-JJM-LDADocument 1Filed 02/26/24Page 18 of 41 PageID #: 18
can download everything they need to pirate and play the game with one click.[1]
- To Play a Nintendo Switch Video Game in Yuzu, Yuzu Unlawfully Decrypts Nintendo’s Game Encryption.
51. As noted above, in the ordinary course of operation users can lawfully purchase authorized physical cartridges with games on them that are inserted into the Nintendo Switch console, or download digital games from Nintendo’s own online store (the Nintendo eShop) while using the Nintendo Switch. Users who have a lawful copy of a Nintendo Switch game only have Nintendo’s authorization to play that single copy on an unmodified Nintendo Switch console. Any unauthorized Nintendo video game ROM—i.e., a game file by itself, not secured on a cartridge or console—is an unlawful copy. Either a user unlawfully dumped it from a physical cartridge or digital eShop game on a hacked Nintendo Switch, or the user obtained a pirated copy from an online pirate ROM library.
52. Importantly, an unauthorized Nintendo video game ROM is still an encrypted game file, protected by the Game Encryption. Indeed, Defendant’s lead developer admits as much. When asked in a June 2018 Discord chat whether “xcis”—the file type of game ROM dumps from a cartridge—“come decrypted,” Bunnei responded: “they are encrypted.” Nintendo is not aware of any source of decrypted Nintendo Switch game ROMs.
53. Yuzu allows users to play unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games by circumventing the Game Encryption at or immediately before runtime.
54. Recall that in an authentic Nintendo Switch, the prod.keys are a set of cryptographic keys that perform a number of functions including assisting decrypting games. An authentic Nintendo Switch extracts a game’s encrypted Title Key and decrypts it using keys in the prod.keys (following slightly different methods for cartridge and Nintendo eShop games, as discussed above), and then dynamically decrypts the game ROM during runtime using the Title Key and another key from the prod.keys.
- ↑ See, e.g., https://fitgirlrepacks.org/switch-emulated/
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