Nintendo is on a roll when it comes to piracy. They've taken legal measures against those who uses the company's IP for commercial purposes. Freeshop, a homebrew software that imitates the 3ds eShop has been targeted by the DMCA.
According to Gamasutra, the homebrew software is not technically a pirated software. But it's still a software that lets players download games from the eShop without actually buying them in the first place. The DMCA or Digital Millenium Copyrights Act sent a notice to the creators of Freeshop, informing them of the laws that they broke. "Nintendo encrypts the game files available from its eShop servers to prevent users from accessing those files without paying for them."
Additionally, the GitHub repository that holds much of Freeshop's code is now unavailable for the public after DMCA's notice to take it down. This move could affect those who uses a "hacked" or homebrew software on their 3ds to bypass Nintendo's security features. Like what is mentioned in the DMCA notice, all of the games available in the eShop has an encryption to prevent people from illegally obtaining a copy of it.
This isn't the first time Nintendo has taken drastic actions against piracy. Aside from Freeshop, several fan games have been sent a notice from the company. The fan made games also violate the IP rights of Nintendo. Piracy is one of the main reasons why Nintendo first released Super Mario Run for the iOS. Piracy is more abundant for Android than iOS devices and Nintendo wants to have a secure environment for their players.
Hopefully, this move by the DMCA and Nintendo will affect those who are using pirated copies of games and other software to stop using them. To know more about the DMCA notice on Freeshop, check it out here.
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