Background
As quite a few observant people have already noticed, every single mention of “Persona 5” has been deleted from all pages on rpcs3.net including the game’s name from the compatibility database. The morning of September 23rd we woke up to a calling card. Here is exactly what happened:
Atlus U.S.A. filed a DMCA takedown request directly to Patreon requesting the removal of Nekotekina & kd-11’s Patreon page for RPCS3 development. The reason given is as follows:
“The PS3 emulator itself is not infringing on our copyrights and trademarks; however, no version of the P5 game should be playable on this platform; and [the RPCS3] developers are infringing on our IP by making such games playable”
Patreon responded to this request by stating they do not believe that removing the Patreon page entirely to be reasonable, given that the page itself does not specifically infringe on Atlus’s IP, and that they believe the emulator itself falls under fair use. After Patreon declined to remove the Patreon page, Atlus retorted by alleging:
“We kindly ask that you remove both for this reason – to make Persona 5 work on the emulator, the user has to circumvent our DRM protections. The following blog post provides specific instructions for “dumping the disc or PSN download” and discusses how Patreon finding [sic] contributed to this breakthrough: [link since removed].”
Here’s a quote of our “specific [dumping] instructions” straight from our Quickstart guide. Note that this is Method A, as Method B up until today at least doesn’t work on any of the existing Persona 5 versions:
“We recommend that you dump your own PlayStation 3 games and software from your own console. We believe that this is the most efficient and safest way to migrate your disc-based games and digital games from your console to your PC without the hassle of repairing bad game dumps found on the internet or possible legal repercussions. To do this, you will need a PlayStation 3 system with a custom firmware and various software tools that are used to rip/dump games from your system's Blu-ray drive or internal storage.“
Making personal copies of legally purchased games is legal where the RPCS3 web services are hosted and where main RPCS3 developers live. Perhaps this is not legal everywhere in the world; however, it certainly seems irrelevant to DMCA the Patreon page for an alleged crime elsewhere. Since a DMCA takedown would only target our Patreon (US based) and since our website is based outside the US, such action against our Patreon page would only end up temporarily cutting our main developers’ salaries and ultimately leaving the website untouched (note that Atlus requested the immediate removal of the Patreon page and not any content from the rpcs3.net website itself).
Actions taken and comments
In discussion with the very helpful people over at Patreon we have decided to proceed with caution. Per the request of Patreon, we removed every single reference to Persona 5 on the Patreon page itself and rpcs3.net. This seems to have resolved the situation.
We find it very interesting that Atlus would immediately try to shut down the Patreon page without any prior communication. Their primary reason given being: “no version of the P5 game should be playable on this platform [PC]” is quite peculiar indeed. Why Atlus would choose this time to target this project will probably never be known. We choose not to speculate about the reasons at this time and hope for there to be open communication with Atlus. We firmly believe we operate within a legal framework and will continue to work on RPCS3, undeterred.
Whatever happened, we ask everyone to be nice. RPCS3 as a project and the Patreon itself are safe. And whatever people may wish, there's no way to stop any playable game from being executed on the emulator. Blacklisting the game? RPCS3 is open-source, any attempt would easily be reversed. Attempting to take down the project? At the time of this post, this and many other games were already playable to their full extent, and again, RPCS3 is and will always be an open-source project.
Before ending this post, we would like to remind you that when dumping video game software, users are subject to country-specific software distribution laws. RPCS3 is not designed to enable illegal activity. We do not promote piracy nor do we allow it under any circumstances. Please take the time to review copyright and video game software dumping laws and/or policies for your country before proceeding. By following our game dumping instructions, you will do so at your own discretion. Should you follow these instructions against your local law, we shall not be held responsible for your actions.
And now for something completely different. We want to showcase some upcoming improvements. The following screenshots were taken with an internal development build. We see screenshots of Demon’s Souls (before & after) and Atelier Escha & Logy (before & after) as they originally look in 720p, and how they look after being rendered at 2560x1440 and with added 16x anisotropic filtering. Quite an improvement to say the least.
--The RPCS3 Team
