Late to the game, but you can also use a localisation file
DataTable provides a .json localized file, which contains the key sEmptyTable and the corresponding localized message.
For example, just download the localized json file on the above link, then initialize your Datatable like that :
$('#example').dataTable( {
"language": {
"url": "path/to/your/json/file.json"
}
});
IMHO, that's a lot cleaner, because your localized content is located in an external file.
This syntax works for DataTables 1.10.16, I didn't test on previous versions.