freeShop was first released in April 2016, before being removed from GitHub following a DMCA takedown notice sent in late December 2016.

[1] freeShop was created by Thomas Edvalson, known online as TheCruel, in 2016. freeShop used a user-submitted database of "tickets" to decrypt games downloaded from Nintendo's servers, which were available without any authentication.

[2] The software was taken down from GitHub after Nintendo sent a DMCA takedown notice requesting its removal on December 27, 2016, claiming that "the freeShop application provided at https://github.com/Cruel/freeShop/releases infringes Nintendo's copyrights, because the application circumvents Nintendo's technological protection measures in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

"[3] Following its removal from GitHub, freeShop was distributed via other means, and piracy of 3DS games directly from Nintendo's servers continued.

[2] In 2018, Nintendo began requiring authentication for downloads of 3DS games, making freeShop and similar tools non-functional.