Little Help

[pooch]

Anyone know of any NES ROM sites that are still active? i haven't been around for a while and jst got nester working on my gp....now i just need some roms (that i already own the hard copis of, and will delete in 24hrs, of course.) to put in my system.

 

[crazeeplaya]

We can't talk about things like this on here <_<

 

[pooch]

hmmm okay then..... h34r:

 

[pooch]

Okay wait...no talk about roms, but there are countless threads about emulation?? emulating copyrighted hardware is juat as illegal as roms. strange.....

 

[crazeeplaya]

Apparently emulators are not illegal, don't ask me why though :unsure: :blink:

 

[Chip]

Technically, all the emulators on this site are for public domain and homebrew roms. Just read the roms/warez policy that's pinned at the top of the forum.

 

[skysnapper]

welll according to nintendos website they don't directly say the emulators themselves are illegal seems like a grey area, roms however are unitil they are 75 years old.

have a look here

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html

 

[crazeeplaya]

Can Websites and/or Internet Content Providers be Held Liable for Violation of Intellectual Property Rights if they are Only Providing Links to Illegal Software and/or Other Illegal Devices?

Yes. Personal Websites and/or Internet Content Providers sites That link to Nintendo ROMs, Nintendo emulators and/or illegal copying devices can be held liable for copyright and trademark violations, regardless of whether the illegal software and/or devices are on their site or whether they are linking to the sites where the illegal items are found.

From the Nintendo website

 

[skysnapper]

It looks like they're turning a blind eye to the emulators themselves

What Does Nintendo Think of the Argument that Emulators are Actually Good for Nintendo Because it Promotes the Nintendo Brand to PC Users and Leads to More Sales?

Distribution of a Nintendo emulator trades off of Nintendo's goodwill and the millions of dollars invested in research & development and marketing by Nintendo and its licensees. Substantial damages are caused to Nintendo and its licensees. It is irrelevant whether or not someone profits from the distribution of an emulator. The emulator promotes the play of illegal ROMs , NOT authentic games. Thus, not only does it not lead to more sales, it has the opposite effect and purpose.

 

[skysnapper]

The Interactive Digital Software Association however say emulators themselves are illegal <_<

Don't programmers use emulators during the development process of a game?

Yes, some programmers do use emulators to create games. However, programmers who are properly licensed to create games for a game console do so with the permission of the affected copyright owners. These authorized programmers, who often use specialized hardware emulators, create new, properly licensed video games with the authorization of the copyright owner. However, a very different situation is presented when someone uses the proprietary code in a game console without the copyright owner's permission. In fact, most emulators that are freely available today are merely software emulators that have no role in the creation of properly licensed video games; these emulators have the exclusive purpose of infringing copyrights and are illegal.

<_<

taken from the idsa website

http://www.idsa.com/faq.html

 

[Rico]

Topic locked (obvious reasons) ... and even though they say emulators, they are simply trying to scare off webmasters from linking or hosting them. They're entirely legal and free of copyright, and Nintendo can't do anything about it (similar to the Tetris thing, except that worked)

Edit: Topic unlocked (this topic seems to have purpose) skysnapper: if an emulator is produced solely for illegal rom running, like Kazaa is for mp3s, it can be shut down. The trick is arguing that case. Currently the homebrew scene is large enough to prevent any legal action on Nintendo's part (that would be worth their time and money).

 

[Mofokubik]

Ok, Roms are illegal because most are perfect dumps of the actual game cartridges. Commercial Roms are copyrighted and therefore illegal to host or download. Emulators arent owned by the company of the system it emulates, and it doesnt violate any laws when used with freeware roms. If you want roms, dont ask here. Your best bet would be to use Google like everyone else. Im just saying, its illegal so just be careful where you ask...


Oh, and since the smaller sites dont get shut down as often, you should try searching through free sites like geocities.

 

[toy]

A very intresting read, although quite long, can be found here. Incluiding an account of the birth of emulation and a little legal discussion of the matter.

Interestingly didn't this site get told off by nintendo (or some others) for hosting tetris clones? I really dont see how original code can be in any breach of anyone's copyrights. Look at how linux was based on unix yet its fine

Please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[NssOne]

It's not about code, it's about trademark images and names that belong to Nintendo.

 

[bradley]

it doesn't matter, legal or not, what matters are the forum rules does anything further really need to be explained beyond this

tip
ask your question on a forum without rom restictions

 

[rcx21000]

Linux is fine????!!!!! I thought that I saw an article a few weeks ago that the unix creators were sueing it because it was similar. Anyways, emulators are legal unless they include the BIOS/OS of the emulated system, because they could be used for homebrew games

 

[toy]

I think you're talking about SCO. They didnt code unix they bought it, realised there was no market for it anymore and then decided they could get money from people with linux by using empty claims and underhand threats. Some poor folk payed licenses for they right to use linux from SCO!!! but the majority just ignored them and last I heard they had some very big counter law suits from the likes of IBM and similar

Power to the GPL

In respect to names and images owned by nintendo, why dont the authors change the game name and lightly change the screen layout?

 

[NssOne]

There are a lot of copycat games out there. The site, coffeebreakarcade.com has tons of copycat games. They all have platform gameplay similar to such popular games as Pac-Man and Defender and such. But since they use different layouts, images and names (and they don't make any money anyways), they don't infringe on copyrighted materials. Just take a look at how many games they have like that.