GitLab has cut off access to the Nintendo Switch emulator Suyu, and has disabled the accounts of its developers, after receiving what appears to be a terrifying email in the form of a DMCA takedown request.
For those who don’t know, Suyu was a fork of Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo successfully sued. But it’s not about Nintendo now having the rights to the Yuzu code and being able to remove any fork related to the emulator. The removal is more on the side of caution.
“GitLab received a DMCA takedown notice from a representative of the rights holder and followed our standard process described here,” spokesperson Kristen Butler explained to The Verge.
Suyu has claimed that it does not include the same evasion measures as Yuzu
As you can see in the email above, the person who sent the withdrawal request is trying to take advantage of how Yuzu allegedly violated DMCA 1201 by bypassing Nintendo’s technical protection measures. Oh, and maybe subtly threatening GitLab with illegal traffic (also part of DMCA 1201) while they’re at it.
A platform like GitLab doesn’t have to host anything it doesn’t want to host. It may not be worth spending time and effort rejecting an invalid DMCA takedown request to protect something that you may not even be interested in protecting, especially if the alternative could be Nintendo suing you.
GitLab did not immediately respond to a question about whether it is company policy to disable user accounts before giving them the opportunity to delete their projects or submit a DMCA counter-notification.
The company’s online manual does not say why GitLab might decide to block or ban a user from its platform; only that “we may, under appropriate circumstances, disable access or terminate the account(s) of reported user(s)”.
Suyu seems to have already found a new home. An hour ago, their leader wrote: “I will definitely host a copy of the code”. At that moment, another member had already cloned the repository at git.suyu.dev.
