Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority
- The top IP lawyer at Nintendo agreed that emulators are technically legal at a panel for intellectual property rights.
- They run afoul of the law when they bypass encryption, recreate copyrighted programs, or point users to pirated material.
- Nintendo’s legal team has been aggressively pursuing emulation projects for years.
Last year was rough for emulation, with Nintendo pressuring and shutting down several emulation projects like Yuzu, Citra, and Ryujinx. However, none of these cases went to court, so the legal status of emulation is still largely untested. And now, we might know why.
At the Tokyo eSports Festa earlier this week, top lawyers and intellectual property leaders from Capcom, Koei, Sega, Konami, and Nintendo discussed a variety of issues concerning copyright and IP in the gaming industry (via Denfaminico Gamer). Regarding emulators, patent attorney and deputy general manager of Nintendo’s intellectual property department, Koji Nishiura, agreed that they are, technically, completely legal.