I believe there is only one way that roms can be legal in every sense of the word. By creating them with the actual cartridge. Now mind you, I do believe that the older systems are safe from companies like Nintendo from stopping them, because the systems will fail...but PCs will never die!
I always considered it odd how media companies such as game and movie makers have the court system by the balls, to the point where you can get fined more for illegally downloading a game then for having sex with a child or killing a man with your car. Of course, it is illegal for plenty a good reason, and everyone who says otherwise is simply looking to justify their pirate behavior. But considering the act is no different then stealing a game case from a retailer, the fine should be no different. Of course, not all game manufacturers are like this. Isn't SEGA unusually lenient when it comes to Genesis games being pirated?
No, he doesn't. The fine is enormously overblown, and what it's essentially done is given him a life's sentence of being a pauper in Nintendo's debt. There are people who have got lighter sentences for physical assault than this. He's an idiot and should be punished, but the punishment is far too harsh.
I have ROMfiles of about 630 games of which I don't own physical copies, all NES & SNES. I got them at a flea market on a disc. What's MY status? EDIT: Here's the disc.
I find it hard to believe that Nintendo's damages for that add up to 1.5 million. The big media companies have all the rights. I think that guy should have been smarter about it though. If he had waited until after the game was released, maybe the fine wouldn't have been so bad. I'm not saying he deserved that sentence, but you know. He doesn't seem much like a pirate to me (or a good one anyway) so why they're calling him that in the article is beyond me. People in the comments section of that article are saying that he could declare bankruptcy and get away with it - it still seems like a completely unfair financial situation to be in.
A week or so the Capcom blog linked to a rom hack of Megaman 2 where you fought ALL of the robot masters at the same time. I thought it was interesting, because this is a blog linking to a rom of their game with modified code. that sparked my interest. Not relevant, and not even true. You really think he paid that shit then willingly went around as a media scapegoat? He's probably not even responsible for it, but got hired to look like a goon to scare the other pirates.
Completely illegal. Every file on that disc bar the emulators are unlicensed copies, and the emulators iirc have stipulations in the readme files that they're not to be distributed with ROMs =P
That wasn't a rom hack. That was an error on the blog's part. There was so much shit going on in that screen there was no way the NES could do any of it.
You can rape and murder your way through as many proles as you want, but stand between The Man and his Jew gold and POW! Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200.
These ridiculous fines are technically terrorist activity. They are trying to alter people's behavior via fear. They really should also fall under "cruel and unusual", as the punishment is far out of proportion and these cases happen so rarely that it barely ever happens.
Nope, wrongo there too, turns out ripping the data yourself is illegal too. You aren't meant to have a binary of any kind of game software on your computer without the express permission from the company responsible for it. They put it on a custom cartridge and such for a reason, if every single game system in existence used the same cartridge design and never changed a thing, piracy would be through the roof. Same thing with disc media too, yes, its a matter of space just as much, but it's a matter of making it that much harder for piracy to occur.
Doesn't seem to stop pirates at all though. I've seen a link to download James Cameron's Avatar: The Game before ffs.
ROMs are illegal, but it's up to the company to sue you. The questions are as follows: do they feel you're hurting their interests; do they have anything to lose by suing you. Most of the time, they're fine with this stuff. It's like the people who download music illegally -- record companies only really go after those individuals who are doing serious abuse. Otherwise, they accept it regrettably as a fact of life that some people will obtain their stuff without buying it. Some things just aren't worth creating a fuss over. I believe a lot of old games will fall into this category.
True, but, as I said, there are some conpanies that will throw their weight around to sue you for everything you own for even a clearance bin game.
It seems to depend on how old it is, and whether the publisher/console manufacturer can make any money from it. I mean, SEGA know about various websites distributing Master System, MegaDrive, Saturn ROMs, hell, even Dreamcast ISOs. However, they also know that they're very unlikely to make any more money from those games, because they're all 7+ years old, and no longer sold by them. They leave it down to the individual publishers to protect. I think Sony still try to block any PS1 game piracy, but I really don't see why. Pretty much all PS1 games bought today are second-hand, therefore earning no money for Sony. In terms of publishers, CodeMasters, on the other hand, are very firm about ANY of their games being pirated/released for free. Want to play Terra Cognita, a bargain-bucket title from 1986? Sorry, that's copy protected.
Such actions should be illegal. Sueing someone over a game for everything they own is way wrong. That's serious terrorism right there.
Pretty much this. I mean, DID I HEAR YOU RIGHT, DID I HEAR YOU SAYIN' THAT YO' GONNA MAKE A COPY OF A GAME WITHOUT PAYIN'?! COME ON, GUYS EDIT: oroflolol, teh typoez
Aw man! Crash and burn. Sounds like my Macintosh LCII alright. :P I thought of this video too when I saw this topic. Anyways, the 24 hour thing is purely made up and downloading any form of a backed-up ROM is illegal. Another example is downloading a copy of Microsoft Windows. If you don't own it, that breaks the EULA (End-User License Agreement) in which you are allowed to install one licensed copy of Windows onto one computer only (and not multiple computers without the "Family" package that includes multiple licenses). That's why many eBay sellers offer the COA (certificate of authenticity) when selling computers to let buyers know that they physically own not only the software, but the license as well. A great example: Driving a car legally: You may "own" the car , but you need a license to drive it legally. I think of ROM distribution as another form of Grand Theft Auto, going around and taking other people's property that they paid money for. lol. Finally, copyrighted works: "As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years." That's America's policy at least.
That's a shitty example. That would only work if the original owner of the car could make infinite copies of it and gave you one.
IANAI, but methinks Betamax is tapping you on the shoulder right about now. Yes it is legal - aside from having to circumvent any DRM [damn you DMCA] - if you copy the data from the original medium, the copy you have - assuming for all argument that it was obtained legally in the first place and isn't being distributed further on without the rightsholder's consent - is legal. It was legal to copy tapes with Betamax, ripping CDs for personal use is legal... games are no different as long as they follow the rules from above.
