Needing a list of legal, non copyright-infringing Apps, games, etc.

[zeldarocks]

I just received my RMA'd Pandora yesterday, and I am currently seeking out legitimate uses for the it; I'm looking to head my life in a clean, legitimate direction and am looking to find some use of my newly-returned Pandora. I understand that one of the biggest draws is the concept of a portable SNES or N64, so I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle with this, but I digress. Can you guys help me out?

 

[Prometheus]

Is this list of any use to you?

 

[Nintendo]

Nothing wrong with emulating 20 year old games.


[This is of course an opinion, not a legal fact. -Gruso]

 

[gruso]

Everything in the repo is legal of course! http://repo.openpandora.org/ Obviously some apps require external game files; it's up to you what you do there. But everything downloadable from the repo is 100% legal.


Also check out this thread: http://boards.openpa...tion-resources/ (Prometheus beat me to, I'd be amazed if she didn't )


Just for a bit of perspective, let's have a look at some repo figures:

• Total apps: 482
  
• Emulators: 39 (most - not all - require copyrighted files)
  
• Games: 321 (a relatively small number require copyright files)
  

The rest are miscellaneous apps and utilities (all homebrew and ports). The 'games' count includes emulators, making the exact figures tricky, but with 39 emus in there and let's guess at another 40 games that require files (Doom etc), that leaves about 400 apps that do not require additional copyrighted content.


Not such an uphill battle

 

[zeldarocks]

Is this list of any use to you?

That fits the bill to a degree; yet doesn't take care of apps, etc that don't require original files. I'm looking for something overall that lists not only emulation resources, but also things such as engines for games such as SRB2, etc that won't require original files (as would be the case with Doom, etc).

 

[gruso]

It actually sounds like a good idea for a repo feature - to filter out games requiring commercial data files. In the absence of that though, the repo is your list. Best you can do is get to know what's in there, and what meets your criteria.

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

Nothing wrong with emulating 20 year old games.

don't encourage piracy, it is VERY wrong if you don't own an original legal copy of the game and depending on the country it might still be illegal even then.


depending on the country copyright can last for over 75 years, 105 years for recent work in the USA.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Duration


we're still a long way from having commercial video game ROMs in the public domain.

 

[Binky]

Nothing wrong with emulating 20 year old games.

don't encourage piracy, it is VERY wrong if you don't own an original legal copy of the game and depending on the country it might still be illegal even then.


depending on the country copyright can last for over 75 years, 105 years for recent work in the USA.


http://en.wikipedia....yright#Duration


we're still a long way from having commercial video game ROMs in the public domain.

There is nothing wrong with emulating old games/consoles, however it is very often illegal to obtain duplicates of games. afaik emulation with a retrode/similar is perfectly ok.

 

[EvilDragon]

That's what the Retrode 2 is for


Copy your own cartridges onto SD and you're perfectly legal here (unless the emulator needs an illegal BIOS).


Copying you old PSX ISOs that don't have a copy protection with your PC is also easily possible and legal.

 

[Binky]

Copy your own cartridges onto SD and you're perfectly legal here (unless the emulator needs an illegal BIOS).

It that true in England?

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

Nothing wrong with emulating 20 year old games.

don't encourage piracy, it is VERY wrong if you don't own an original legal copy of the game and depending on the country it might still be illegal even then.


depending on the country copyright can last for over 75 years, 105 years for recent work in the USA.


http://en.wikipedia....yright#Duration


we're still a long way from having commercial video game ROMs in the public domain.

There is nothing wrong with emulating old games/consoles, however it is very often illegal to obtain duplicates of games. afaik emulation with a retrode/similar is perfectly ok.

Sony is insinuating (accidentally or not) that because a game is 20 year old its ok.


there is no such 20 year threshold.


this is bogus information that others will take as fact.


it is wrong and illegal if you don't own a license to the game, unless it is past the copyright expiration date which right now in the USA is over a hundred years and 50 to 70 years in a lot of countries.


not 20 years.


@Binky & @Sony: EvilDragon says it right:

That's what the Retrode 2 is for


Copy your own cartridges onto SD and you're perfectly legal here (unless the emulator needs an illegal BIOS).


Copying you old PSX ISOs that don't have a copy protection with your PC is also easily possible and legal.

this is correct in most countries I know.


also, in some juridictions, breaking copy protection for the purpose of media shifting (you own the original and want to transfer it to another medium, e.g. from your DVD to your iPhone so YOU can watch it, not distribute it) may be legal but check your country & state's laws first, there is more and more legislation being written against this so check first.


in any case, a game being 20 years old has nothing to do with anything regarding the validity of emulation.

 

[Binky]

SONY is entirely correct that there is nothing wrong with emulation, at any time.

1. Where did the '20 year old' come from?
   
2. Where did the (non) argument about copying come from?
   

Emulation is always OK


Distributing/downloading ROMs is NOT (for most stuff anyways)

 

[Lao Rebel]

Nothing wrong with emulating 20 year old games.

don't encourage piracy, it is VERY wrong if you don't own an original legal copy of the game and depending on the country it might still be illegal even then.


depending on the country copyright can last for over 75 years, 105 years for recent work in the USA.


http://en.wikipedia....yright#Duration


we're still a long way from having commercial video game ROMs in the public domain.

i don't recognize your "laws." why should i follow "laws" made up by oppressive governments?! pychopaths make your laws, did you know that?!

 

[gruso]

I am also of the opinion that the laws are stupid. In the privacy of my own home I can choose to follow them - or not. Here on the boards though, we follow them or risk getting shut down.

 

[Prometheus]

Here on the boards though, we follow them or risk getting shut down.

To elaborate on that a bit, here's an explanation of the matter from EvilDragon.

 

[KK25]

It that true in England?

I think that the UK has similar laws to Australia in this area... It is legal to backup software that you own. Where things can get a bit grey though is that it is illegal to circumvent any kind of copy protection that might be in place.


With regard to some of the other posts in here, while the games might be old, they are still generating revenue for companies. Revenue that is potentially hurt through piracy. Nintendo is still flogging NES games off on the 3DS. Sony are selling Neo Geo and PC Engine games through the PSN etc. They are far from abandoned.

 

[diligentcircle]

(as would be the case with Doom, etc).

You should try Freedoom. It's basically a Doom 2 WAD for Boom-compatible engines (e.g. PrBoom) that can also be used as a base for PWADs made for any Doom engine (only the levels in Freedoom require Boom compatibility). Still in an alpha state, but very fun.

 

[Stephane Hockenhull]

Anyway, be careful of what you say, how you say it, and especially how it could be misinterpreted.


Big publishing houses and their associations have whole teams of full-time vampires in suits paid just to take down whole sites indiscriminately at the first glimpse of a suggestion of piracy.


don't get me wrong, I've been supporting homebrew, flash carts and emulation (for legal use) for a while now:


http://rv6502.com/in...p?blog=00000004


free, legal, game boy color game made by me for a flash cart maker's competition 12 years ago


(sometimes the ball glitches between bricks, that's "normal", not the emu's fault )


I had to start hosting the file on my own website because the (legal and not so legal) emu sites hosting it were receiving the legal equivalent of getting nuked from space.


and still, new legislative nukes are being created and old ones getting bigger and bigger.

 

[ckblackm]

There are some roms that are legally available for download as well.


For the Intellivision, you can get them here: http://www.intellivisionlives.com/download.shtml


(Note to moderators, intellivisionlives.com is the website for Intellivision Productions Inc, which, from their website: 1997 Intellivision Productions, Inc., formed by ex-Mattel Electronics programmers, obtains exclusive rights to the Intellivision system and games, posts free PC- and Mac-emulated versions of several games on the web.)


You can also purchase one of the Intellivision Lives cd compilations that has a bunch more games on it.


For Atari type stuff... Atariage.com has some homebrew stuff.


Christopher.