Nintendo is exempt from GPLv2 licensing and may (at its option) instead license any source code authored for the Atmosphère project under the Zero-Clause BSD license.
My goal is for Horizon to be the best operating system possible, and I sometimes make what I think are improvements while reimplementing it. If Nintendo wants to adapt any of my improvements, I want to be damn sure I am not preventing them from doing so in any way.
The exemption means they can take and use my work without credit or acknowledgement in any way, and I sincerely hope they might do so.
Little. But I’ve had my sweet time explaining how Nintendo legal operates - you want to avoid even grey code. This is why I had to block people from putting reverse engineered code into the switch target of Rusts libc. While it’s probably legal, Nintendo will likely get it taken down first and then you need to fight them back.
Luckily, today, the situation is different, there’s now an upcoming simulator on Steam that illustrates the modus operandi of Nintendo legal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2dBj3Wp9yM
why?
If you dig through the commit log (i.e. by checking the git blame), you’ll see that someone else asked and the author replied over here
Quote from the link:
Based on past actions, Nintendo is far more likely to threaten to sue the author for daring to actually own the device they paid Nintendo for.
What are the chances Nintendo even notices before sending a C&D?
Little. But I’ve had my sweet time explaining how Nintendo legal operates - you want to avoid even grey code. This is why I had to block people from putting reverse engineered code into the switch target of Rusts libc. While it’s probably legal, Nintendo will likely get it taken down first and then you need to fight them back.
Luckily, today, the situation is different, there’s now an upcoming simulator on Steam that illustrates the modus operandi of Nintendo legal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2dBj3Wp9yM
That YouTube link seems to be an ad for a game, nothing to do with emulation?
It’s called a “joke”. And yeah, it’s pretty accurate to Nintendo legal practices.
“Simulator” in @skade’s comment was meant to invoke the genre of “simulation games”, like Farming Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator.
Thank you for doing that.