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I know thatClad said:It's what I was referring to earlier when I spoke of the mickey mouse act.
+ yes I am feeling cynical today.
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I know thatClad said:It's what I was referring to earlier when I spoke of the mickey mouse act.
That was kind of my point. Both of them.declaration said:Nintendo gets the exact same amount of money if you download a game illegally than if you went and bought a second hand Mario 64 on ebay.
In fact, they get less because people have less money to spend on new games.
One is legal, one isn't. They are both morally equal in my opinion.
And seeing as there is zero per cent chance of anyone actually prosecuting you for using old roms then what's the problem?
I can explain the situation of Spain. The right for a private copy has been severely downsized lately (2007). The original law said than you could make a copy of a creation if it was for non-profit. The SGAE (local RIAA) tried to make P2P an out-of-law saying that it wasn't non-profit since you got an actual profit not paying money. Judges always though different, understanding "profit" as "paying money" but not the negative clause. This was the main jurisprudence in Spain (European jurisprudence it is not based on precedents as English/American, but in the spirit of law that is understood by magistrates. Even with known precedents, different judges may have different judgements if they understand the spirit of law differently. It is not often the case, but if so there is a hierarchy of judges)Clad said:Second, the right to private copy is no more. They were some point in 2005/2006 where a glitch in the law made all piracy legal, as P2P was considered "lending things to friends" basically.
That was my understanding to, but... (continue to next quote)...Sobek said:My understanding(As I'm into emulation and abandonware) is that as long as you have the cartridge, disk, card, etc. for a game you can legally download and use a ROM, ISO, BIN, etc.
(Not sure where everyone lives, but I like to disseminate knowledge.)
(Insane lawsuits come from litigious motherfuckers, not immorality.)
...I wanted to check first. Thanks Yrx for clearing that up.Yrx said:There are a lot of rumors concerning ROM usage. In America, it is illegal to emulate commercial games. Period. Even if you own the game. Even if you dumped it yourself. The 24 hour idea is also a misconception, probably one that came out of general moral advice.
hal9000 said:The problem is that the gap between what is morally acceptable and what is legal is quite big when it comes to game emulation.javaJake said:Making sure what I'm doing isn't wrong is important to me, though, so I'll keep thinking about it and doing a little research.
I was talking about it being "morally acceptable" for myself. I know the difference: that's why I brought up the whole CD-ripping thing.
Good points. Thanks for your input!Clad said:...
Fourth, the kind of games most of us are interested in I suppose (C64-type and Amiga-type) are often 100% free : the makers having gone bankrupt, no one holds any copyright on those.
Fifth, there is also some devs that explicitly decided to get their older games in public domain. Cinemaware is even distributing cracked roms of their old games (with original cracktro and everything !) on heir website.
Sixth, although is doesn't concern us yet (the oldest video game being about 50 years old or so), every US games more than 75 years old automatically go into public domain internationally. (was 50 before the mickey mouse act a few years ago)
...
Linkous said:why's this in the pandora board? 0.o it seems more of an off topic, i could understand it being in emulation, but on the pandora board?
Because it doesn't belong in the GP2X forum, GP32 forum, or the Support forums. This thread is relating to the upcoming Pandora release, and whether or not it's legal or moral to emulate consoles/games on it.Linkous said:why's this in the pandora board? 0.o it seems more of an off topic, i could understand it being in emulation, but on the pandora board?
Fixed.Chip said:Arguably, there is no right answer.
Chip said:Here is a short article from Curmudgeon Gamer explaining why basically all emulation is illegal.
"...that means the owner of an original may make a a copy and that copy cannot be used unless the original is destroyed or damaged."
Ooo, ooo, loophole! I'll just buy the game, break it, and use the ROM as my main copy!![]()
Misnomer, I'm afraid.Sobek said:My understanding of US law(Admittedly out of date) is this: You may download and use a ROM, legally, for a maximum of 24 hours, after which you MUST delete it unless you have the physical cartridge for the game.
Clad said:Sixth, although is doesn't concern us yet (the oldest video game being about 50 years old or so), every US games more than 75 years old automatically go into public domain internationally. (was 50 before the mickey mouse act a few years ago)
Copying the cart in the US is illegal, even for personal use. See my post above. It falls under the DMCA anti-circumvention rules.gavie said:This is what I've heard/read about US and EU (atleast in the Netherlands) policy.
You can not emulate downloaded console games. But it's legal to make a dump of your game with a ROM-backup-device. Even if you have the same file in the end (No way to track that down but whatever). Backing up your games is legal (No matter if it's a PC or console game). As far as I know it's also legal to emulate your own dumped game.
The 24 hour idea is bullcrap. This is something the ROM sites made up..
There is no such thing as abandonware. If a company decides to make their game downloadable for free, then it's freeware. And it takes ages for a game to go into public domain.. (commercial games are not old enough yet)
So yeah, it's more a moral issue..If I have the original cartridges/CD's I don't care about downloading/emulating the official games.
If I don't own the official games, I care a bit more.. but still...
Okay, but copying a CD of let's say a PSX or PC game for backup purpose is legal right?realyst said:Copying the cart in the US is illegal, even for personal use. See my post above. It falls under the DMCA anti-circumvention rules.
Not sure about EU. Legit in Canada at least.
this is info for the us only. i don't know other countries laws, and i make no claim. No i wont help you do this. this information is posted free of charge without any intent to support you. in other words, your undertaking this for yourself, and i would even doubt the validity of the information if i were you. really.javaJake said:I hear about all these games, and would love to try them out, but I want to do it legally. Someone had shown me how to get Mario Kart 64 onto my computer once, but it dawned on me (yep, it's that same ol' 40w bulb!) a few days later that it was probably illegal, so I promptly deleted it.
So it all boils down to this simple question: what's the legal way I can do this?![]()