Is It Legal?

[lhn555]

Is the OpenPandora legal in the US? Thx.

 

[Prometheus]

I'm not quite sure I understand how to answer your question, as I'm actually unaware of any reason why it would be illegal in the US.

Can any US folks chime in on this?

 

[Dunny]

Unfortunately, it can be used as a storage device with a USB interface and so is indeed now illegal in the United States.

D.

 

[WizardStan]

Why would it be illegal? There's some question about FCC regulations, but I'm pretty sure even those are unfounded.

edit: I really hope you're joking, Dunny, because that would be a sad day for the US indeed.

 

[Dunny]

I really hope you're joking, Dunny, because that would be a sad day for the US indeed.

Bah, you spoilt it.

Anyhow, given that it can be used to circumvent copy protection on PS3s, doesn't that now mean that it's illegal to own one under the DMCA?

D.

 

[MichaelXX2]

Even if it was illegal, it's not like there's any way for them to hunt you down and see if the device coming through the docks are Pandoras or not. It's like emulation. It's illegal (or so I've read) and everyone still does it. Except the consolefags that can't get over the idea of it not being "real" or some crap like that.

 

[Beholder]

No, but it should be... After all, all of the fun things are illegal. If the Pandora were illegal I would want it even more. Watch out for the fun police, homie!

 

[Prometheus]

It's like emulation. It's illegal (or so I've read) and everyone still does it.

You've read wrong. See Sony vs bleem! LLC (1999) for a historical example. To put it in a nutshell, it is copyright infringement, which some commit, that is illegal.

Except the consolefags that can't get over the idea of it not being "real" or some crap like that.

I'm guessing you've never actually experienced some of these games on the real thing? It's very much worth it, I assure you, for those of us unafraid of silly little labels.

 

[Dunny]

Yes, as Prometheus et al have pointed out, emulation is not currently illegal. Many companies (such as Sony, Nintendo etc) would dearly love it to be made illegal and will probably have their way by the end of this next decade but for now... No, it's not illegal. Even owning images of ROMs and disks/tapes are not illegal depending upon which country you're in (for example, owning copied games is not illegal in the UK, but distributing them is - whereas in the US, it's illegal to even own them).

Emulation will be illegal eventually, as that's what the folks with the money want, so enjoy it while you can.

D.

 

[MichaelXX2]

I'm guessing you've never actually experienced some of these games on the real thing? It's very much worth it, I assure you, for those of us unafraid of silly little labels.

I actually have experienced the real thing on real consoles for about 50-55% of the games I emulate. But the problem lies in the people that use consoles ONLY and completely resent emulation. That's what I hate about them.

 

[TuxDot]

No. You see, when SCO won its lawsuits against Novell, Red Hat and IBM, Linux was declared illegal to use in the US without paying a large license fee to SCO Group. Open source was also declared analogous to digital communism and communism is bad, mmmkay? So that's also illegal in the US.

Google, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and various other Linux using companies are operating outside of the law, and that's exactly why Apple and Microsoft are suing Moto and HTC over Android, which is a communist Linux operating system. In this way, Apple and Microsoft are protecting our American freedom and way of life.

Now, the Pandora, which was created in the closet-communist United Kingdom, runs a communist open source Linux operating system. Our American way of life is now being threatened by the CommiePandora, which is why we must declare war on the UK.

Don't be a communist.

-Love,
Tux.King
This is all a rather unfunny joke, please don't kill me. :lol:

 

[MichaelXX2]

I concur. Bring in the f$cking Landmasters, it's time to blow up some heads.

 

[Prometheus]

I actually have experienced the real thing on real consoles for about 50-55% of the games I emulate. But the problem lies in the people that use consoles ONLY and completely resent emulation. That's what I hate about them.

That doesn't sound like any sort of "problem" to me, and it sounds like a poor reason to dislike someone, but whatever floats your boat.

I can personally think of several circumstances where I wouldn't want to use emulation, incidentally, but that's veering off-topic. :lol: I don't believe that people who feel that way on a wider scale are hateworthy. There are far more problematic and hatesome things in this world than people who don't wish to use emulation software.

 

[Tom`]

Yes, as Prometheus et al have pointed out, emulation is not currently illegal. Many companies (such as Sony, Nintendo etc) would dearly love it to be made illegal and will probably have their way by the end of this next decade but for now... No, it's not illegal. Even owning images of ROMs and disks/tapes are not illegal depending upon which country you're in (for example, owning copied games is not illegal in the UK, but distributing them is - whereas in the US, it's illegal to even own them).

Emulation will be illegal eventually, as that's what the folks with the money want, so enjoy it while you can.

D.

Not in the UK, perhaps, but depending on the emulator, you could still theoretically be violating the DMCA, whether you own the original game or not, if the system had any copy-protection ("a means of controlling access to a protected work.") Not that anyone really cares; no one is likely to encounter legal trouble (and if they were, it probably wouldn't matter if they owned the game or not, because Nintendo at least claims that they still consider it "piracy" either way, and they can probably afford better lawyers than you.)

 

[gruso]

Except the consolefags that can't get over the idea of it not being "real" or some crap like that.

No. You can have an irrational hatred of people who prefer real hardware all you like, but no 'fag' derived insults on GP32X please.

 

[skeezix]

Emulation _never_ _ever_ has been illegal. Emulation is not a thing that can be pinned down in any way different from any other virtual machine, and VMs have been around for decades. Technically, emulation has been around for many _Decades_, and never once been illegal.

As always (And I don't see why people don't get it, for christ sakes -- _piracy_ is illegal. Thats it.

Emulation cannot be illegal without setting back all of software development for years; but piracy of ROMs always always is illegal (where the definition of piracy varies by country.)

Is that so hard?

And yes, I've _sold_ emulators legally, I know all about it.

jeff

 

[pder]

I think the reason people are confused about the legality of emulators is due to the fact that people that use emulators are almost guaranteed to be obtaining roms illegally. Even if someone owns the original game, its very likely that they obtained the rom dump illegally.

 

[DaveC]

Is the OpenPandora legal in the US? Thx.

The Pandora is no different than any other PC, netbook, cellphone, PDA etc as far as legality.

If you are referring to the fact that it has emulators for it that is meaningless. If that was illegal then so would the PC or Mac that you used to type this, those run emulators too.

 

[CPUnltd]

a device can't technically be made illegal due to the tools that "can/are possible to" be used with said device... They'd have to ban computers altogether... everything is able to emulate DOS... not only that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo couldn't really ever wish that (in the end) because Wii emulates GameCube, PS3 emulates PS2 (and used to emulate PSOne) and XBox360 emulates XBox (not to mention Windows Vista and Windows 7 both emulate XP for "software compatibility") And when all said and done, 2 out of these 3 "emulate legitimate, fair, honest companies"... Pick your fav two for this title...

 

[Mjlink]

No. You see, when SCO won its lawsuits against Novell, Red Hat and IBM, Linux was declared illegal to use in the US without paying a large license fee to SCO Group. Open source was also declared analogous to digital communism and communism is bad, mmmkay? So that's also illegal in the US.

Google, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, and various other Linux using companies are operating outside of the law, and that's exactly why Apple and Microsoft are suing Moto and HTC over Android, which is a communist Linux operating system. In this way, Apple and Microsoft are protecting our American freedom and way of life.

Now, the Pandora, which was created in the closet-communist United Kingdom, runs a communist open source Linux operating system. Our American way of life is now being threatened by the CommiePandora, which is why we must declare war on the UK.

Don't be a communist.

-Love,
Tux.King
This is all a rather unfunny joke, please don't kill me. :lol:

Well put.

Peace & Pandora,

Link