GitLab has received a DMCA takedown notice from a rights holder representative and has followed our standard procedure, as described here," says spokesperson Kristen Butler The Verge.
Suyu was a fork of Yuzu, the Nintendo emulator successfully sued by Nintendo, but that's not necessarily related to Nintendo now owning the Yuzu code – or even Nintendo at all? Nintendo may not necessarily have the rights to the Yuzu code in its settlement, and GitLab did not disclose The Verge behind the takedown.
Instead, as seen in the email above – one of several shared in Suyu's Discord and previously posted by Overkill.wtf – the requester of the takedown is trying to replicate the way Yuzu seemingly violated DMCA 1201 by circumventing Nintendo's technical protection measures. Oh, and maybe even delicately threatening GitLab with illegal commerce (also part of DMCA 1201) while doing so.
I'm not a lawyer, but a few lawyers told me two years ago that a DMCA takedown request must technically include "identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed," and that DMCA 1201 is not the same as DMCA 512, which covers takedown requests.
Suyu claims it does not employ the same workarounds as Yuzu.
But those lawyers also told me that valid or invalid, it may not matter so much, as a platform like GitLab is not obliged to host anything it doesn't want to host. Maybe it's not worth the time and effort to contest an illegal DMCA takedown to protect something you may not even care to protect – especially if the alternative may be Nintendo coming after you with a lawsuit.
GitLab did not immediately respond to the question of whether it is company policy to suspend user accounts before giving them the opportunity to delete their projects or file a DMCA counter-notice. The company's online guide does not explain why GitLab might decide to block or prohibit a user from its platform; only that "we may, under appropriate circumstances, terminate access or accounts of users who are reported."
It seems Suyu has already found a new home. An hour ago, its leader wrote, "I am definitely going to host a mirror of the code." At this point, another member has already forked it to git.suyu.dev.
