Nintendo's War On Switch Modchip Hacks Just Wiped Out 144 GitHub Repos
In the DMCA notice, which was posted on GitHub, Nintendo requested the takedown of the Picofly repository. The Picofly is one of several modchips that can be installed in the Nintendo Switch, which enables users to execute unsigned code, run homebrew software, install game emulators, and play downloaded ROM files. For the modchip to work, though, it has to be configured with firmware, which is what the Picofly repository was hosting.
The firmware works by bypassing the console’s trusted platform modules (TPMs), which helps secure its boot sequence and cryptographic signatures. The company says the code is “primarily designed to and unlawfully ‘circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under’ the DMCA.” Adding that distribution of the firmware through GitHub “constitutes unlawful trafficking in technology,” in this case software designed to get past protections for copyrighted works.
Of course, other users had forked the original repository either as a backup strategy or to potentially modify the code for their own needs. Nintendo claimed that these forks all contained infringing code found in the parent repository, which meant that GitHub processed the takedown notice against the entire network of 144 repositories, including the original parent repository.
Time will tell how effective this massive takedown ends up being, as it’s not uncommon for new projects to spring up that press forward while reworking the codebase to avoid whatever offending code sparked the takedown notice in the first place.
