Nintendo’s battle against piracy continues with a DMCA takedown on Switch mod chip firmware
GitHub has shut down 144 repositories hosting firmware for Picofly and other chips
Nintendo has taken down a number of GitHub repositories storing firmware for Switch mod chips, in the latest chapter in its fight against piracy.
In the past, Nintendo has sent DMCA notices to GitHub requesting that it remove Switch emulators and the tools to run pirated games on them, such as key dumping tools.
Now, as reported by TorrentFreak, it’s sent a further DMCA takedown to GitHub, which has led to the removal of 144 repositories offering information and firmware for Switch modchips “including but not limited to SX Core, SX Lite, Picofly or HWFLY”.
“The firmware allows Nintendo Switch modchips to illegally circumvent Nintendo’s TPMs in order to run illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games,” Nintendo’s notice reads.
“Specifically, during operation, the mod chip firmware at the reported repositories circumvents the technological protection measures put in place on the Nintendo Switch console by bypassing the boot sequence.
“Thus, they are primarily designed to and unlawfully ‘circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under’ the DMCA, and distribution of these mod chip firmware constitutes unlawful trafficking in technology that is ‘primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access’ to copyrighted works.”
Nintendo’s notice also cites a former court case where three people were indicted in 2020 for the use of modchips. This led to the arrest of Gary Bowser, who was subsequently sentenced to 40 months in prison for his role in such activities.
Further reading
Bowser was released from prison in 2023 after being sentenced for his part as a member of hacking group Team-Xecuter, which in 2013 began creating and selling circumvention devices enabling users to play illegal ROMs on consoles, including Switch and 3DS.
According to the US government, Team-Xecuter’s criminal enterprise generated tens of millions of dollars in sales and resulted in up to $150 million in losses.
As the publication points out, while Bowser’s guilty plea isn’t the same as a court ruling that modchips are definitively illegal, Nintendo doesn’t need to prove that while filing a DMCA notice, and GitHub has decided its notice is enough reason to take down the repositories.
