Discord has decided to ban lead developers of Suyu and Sudaichi and servers associated with Switch emulators, following a shutdown of the popular Switch emulator Yuzu. This decision follows a settlement reached between Nintendo and the creator of Yuzu, in which the latter agreed to pay $2.4 million in “monetary relief” to resolve the lawsuit.

As reported by The Verge, the developers of Switch emulators have recently been contacted by Discord regarding the alleged sharing of content that violates intellectual property. In response to the concerns raised, Discord has issued a statement to The Verge, stating that there has been a court-ordered injunction for the takedown of such materials. This development suggests that the action taken by Discord is directly linked to the previous legal issues surrounding the Switch emulator Yuzu while also ceasing all activities and distribution of the emulator.

“Discord responds to and complies with all legal and valid Digital Millennium Copyright Act requests. In this instance, there was also a court ordered injunction for the takedown of these materials, and we took action in a manner consistent with the court order.”

Despite the recent development, there is a lack of clarity regarding the issue of whether the Discord channels themselves violated intellectual property rights. The developers had previously assured that they were taking appropriate measures to prevent any potential action from Nintendo. However, it is also possible that individuals within these channels shared material that could potentially be in breach of Discord’s policy.

Even if this is the case, it is important to note that Discord’s Copyright and IP Policy states that only specific content deemed to be infringing on copyright law will be removed. Repeat offenders may face the consequences of having their accounts disabled entirely. According to Sudachi’s developer Jarrod Norwell, the deletion of his account came as a surprise, with little supporting information being provided to justify the action.

??

Would an appeal even work if all of that was to cease on Discord? I used it all the time to talk to my brother and friends

Really pissed off tbh pic.twitter.com/9oH305yGdc

— Jarrod Norwell (Antique) (@antique_codes) April 10, 2024

Nintendo has broadened its scope of takedown actions to include not only Switch emulators but also certain tools that facilitate their use. The company has sent DMCA takedown requests to GitHub, requesting that 27 forks of the Sigpatch Updater be removed.

Additionally, Nintendo targeted Lockpick_RCM, kezplez-nx, and Incognito_RCM, which are tools used by Switch owners and developers to obtain encryption keys. By targeting these tools, Nintendo aims to disrupt the accessibility of emulators and discourage the development of unauthorized software.