The restrictions affected materials related to Picofly, HWFLY, SX Core, and SX Lite. Nintendo claims that such software makes it possible to bypass the console’s technological protection measures and is primarily used to run illegal copies of games. In a notice filed under the DMCA, the company stated that the firmware was originally created to circumvent copyright protection.
As an example, the Japanese manufacturer cited the case of the members of Team-Xecuter, a group that developed and sold devices to run pirated games. One of its members was Gary Bowser. In 2020, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison. He was released in 2023, but is still obligated to pay Nintendo 25% to 30% of his income.
At the same time, the Bowser case does not mean that all modchips are automatically deemed illegal. To file a DMCA notice, Nintendo is also not required to prove this in court beforehand. GitHub considered the company’s request sufficient grounds to remove the specified repositories.
This is another step by Nintendo in its crackdown on tools designed to circumvent console protections. Previously, the company sought the removal of Switch emulators and software used to extract keys required to run games.