"The Developers Deceived Everyone": The Wii Homebrew Channel Is In Trouble As Devs Allegedly Stole Code From Nintendo

Summary

• Development for the Nintendo Wii homebrew channel has ceased, and the repository has been archived.
• This comes as the devs say that a vital component was made using code stolen from other developers, and even Nintendo itself.
• This would make the existence of the Homebrew Channel more legally risky, prompting the team to take aciton.

Since Nintendo pulled support from the Wii, the console has been kept alive by a dedicated modding community. At the heart of this community, there's the Homebrew Channel - a fan-made channel for the Wii that can be used to modify games, like adding custom tracks to Mario Kart Wii, or new characters to Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

However, the long-running channel appears to be in trouble, as the developers of a component used in Homebrew Channel have been accused of using code stolen from Nintendo and other developers. Due to this, the repository used to download Homebrew Channel has been archived and will no longer receive updates or contributions.

The Homebrew Channel For The Nintendo Wii Is In Trouble

As reported by Go Nintendo, this all comes from a statement left on the GitHub page for the Homebrew Channel. Here, it is claimed that the problem is libogc, a component used in most Nintendo Wii modding projects. It is alleged that libogc was created using code "stolen directly​​​​​​​" from the Nintendo Software Development Kit (SDK), therefore making the channel much more legally problematic than it was before, and putting devs at risk for using or hosting libogc.

"We thought that at least significant parts of libogc, such as its threading implementation, were original, and reluctantly continued to use the project while distancing ourselves from it," the statement from Homebrew Channel reads. However, the developers now say that they have discovered that libogc also stole code from RTEMS, an open-source operating system, and removed credits.

"This goes far beyond ignorance about the copyright implications of reverse engineering Nintendo binaries, and goes straight into outright deliberate, malicious code theft and copyright infringement," the post continues. "The Wii homebrew community was all built on top of a pile of lies and copyright infringement [...] Together, the developers deceived everyone into believing their work was original."

Many in the community are making it clear that Nintendo hasn't been the one to order the development of Homebrew Channel to cease, despite the company having a history of shutting down fan projects. It certainly appears that the team made the decision itself after making this discovery, since it puts homebrew devs who use libogc at risk. At this time, Nintendo doesn't appear to have done anything regarding the matter.

Nintendo Wii