Legality of emulators

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Silent Assasin

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Pretty much, I'm just wondering if emulators of older consoles are even legal... For some reason, I've really wanted to get back into some old school Sega and SNES games, but sadly neither me or any of my friends still own a SNES. And my Sega barely works, and I can no longer find the games I actually want to play.
 
Emulators themselves aren't illegal unless they violate a corporate or individual patent and does not include copyrighted software. 99% of emulators out there sidestep this perfectly due to the way the emulator is coded. That said, illegal video game distribution will always remain illegal...
 
I am not sure but as long as you own a game system and the cartridge that you want to emulate on the pc it is legal...... dont take my word for it but I believe that if you own the cartridge that you can emulate it.


Enigma
 
Enigma said:
I am not sure but as long as you own a game system and the cartridge that you want to emulate on the pc it is legal...... dont take my word for it but I believe that if you own the cartridge that you can emulate it.


Enigma
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No, it's not legal. While the legality of whether or not it is legal for you to make your own backups is in question, taking another's backups are definitely illegal. This has been found to be the case with music media and DVDs -- just because you own the DVD, you cannot then go and download the movie off the internet. The same can be extended to software because it is classified as digital media.
 
PWMK2 said:
No, it's not legal. While the legality of whether or not it is legal for you to make your own backups is in question, taking another's backups are definitely illegal. This has been found to be the case with music media and DVDs -- just because you own the DVD, you cannot then go and download the movie off the internet. The same can be extended to software because it is classified as digital media.
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Thanks for the correction I was not sure on that.......... in my opinion if you own the physical media whether you download it or not it is still legal
 
Silent Assasin said:
Pretty much, I'm just wondering if emulators of older consoles are even legal... For some reason, I've really wanted to get back into some old school Sega and SNES games, but sadly neither me or any of my friends still own a SNES. And my Sega barely works, and I can no longer find the games I actually want to play.
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Emulators are legal. Roms are not. If you really want old Sega games, Sega has released quite a few gamepacks on CD for the PC. Ebay has quite a few old games and I'm sure there are other places. The easiest way to get them though is through downloading roms- and that all depends if you care about getting the games legally or not.
 
PWMK2 said:
No, it's not legal. While the legality of whether or not it is legal for you to make your own backups is in question, taking another's backups are definitely illegal. This has been found to be the case with music media and DVDs -- just because you own the DVD, you cannot then go and download the movie off the internet. The same can be extended to software because it is classified as digital media.
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uhh.. yes you can. Unless you sing some EULA saying other wise, you own a licence to play that game. They company can policy all they want, you own the game, you play the game or movie what ever way you want.
 
Obi_Kwiet said:
uhh.. yes you can. Unless you sing some EULA saying other wise, you own a licence to play that game. They company can policy all they want, you own the game, you play the game or movie what ever way you want.
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You have a license to play your copy of the game. There's a difference.

So, you can't buy a copy and then illegally download another copy off the internet.
 
The part of the equation that is largely illegal is distribution, when you upload or download(in some juristictions that isn't necessarially illegal) roms you are typically violating copyright law.

The emulators themselves for the most part are perfectly legal.
 
PWMK2 said:
You have a license to play your copy of the game. There's a difference.

So, you can't buy a copy and then illegally download another copy off the internet.
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Ok, but then it's ok for me to own a copy of say, Chrono Trigger for the SNES and make my own flashed rom from the original cartridge THEN owning that ROM would be legal? Are companies really going to care witch method you used to obtain the ROM? :p

Not trying to be smart, just asking.
 
Most of the NOA EULA's specifically restrict the right to make backup copies of their cartridges. US law, however, specifically extends the right for a consumer to make a single copy of their software for backup purposes as long as, thanks to the DMCA, no copy protection technology is circumvented in doing so.

So depending on who you agree with, you may be allowed to make your own rom dump of your cartridges. Even then, the EULA for some games grants a license only to play the software on the original platform.

So in the end, emulating comercial games is usually illegal in some fashion or another. Personally, I don't think I'd be too broken up about emulating a game I had sitting right on the shelf, though.
 
I may be completely wrong on this so definitely correct me on it if so. I remember reading one time in an article that was talking to some attorny I believe on the legallity of roms/emulators etc. One of the things mentioned was that there was a possibility to play old games and obtain them if the media they were distrubuted on is out of date. So say the system's cartridges are not made any more there's no means for the company to distribute the games there for the law doesn't care as much. So when Nintendo starts putting the catalog back up for sale on the wii that changes it too cause now the games have a new means of being distributed. Since you can now buy it, it becomes illegal again. Like I said I might just be stupid in what I remember so don't take what I say to heart.
 
Emulators are perfectly legal, especially emulation of older hardware such as the NES, Atari 2600, etc, because the patents for the hardware used in those systems have expired.

As far as roms go, I doubt that any court on earth would ever convict you of downloading roms of games that you already own. Even if you didn't own them, every game up the the Playstation, N64, Saturn era(except for some Playstation titles) is out of print/discontinued, so downloading those titles would be, in effect, a victimless crime, rendering the law arbitrary and unnecessary in that situation, and they wouldn't toss up any road blocks for you.
 
Actually they might, seeing as Nintendo re-releases some of it's old hit games (think Donkey Kong on the SNES now out on the Game Boy).
 
It's a gray area at best, and a topic of discussion that is not allowed.

The Hard|Forum Rules said:
(18) You will not discuss, suggest, engage, or encourage any ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES. Links provided to locations that deal with any such activity are also expressly forbidden.
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