I know there is plenty of info out there, but does anyone have any credible shit on the actuall legal status of roms, I know emu guys say that if you own the original game cart/cd/etc you are legally allowed to make backups, so, what if im don't, and I download GAME.rom and play it on EMULATOR.exe what would be the repocussions, and would a game company really waste their money/time/effort prosecuting 14 year old kids for downloading a so called ESA protected rom, Just wondering really, has anybody had any cease and desist letters from major companies for playing/sharing roms with people online, VERY CURIOUS ABOUT THIS Please share youre experiences if anybody has any!!
Dude you can still get in trouble for having games you downloaded onto your computer if you don't have them in real life. Most likely you would get a big fine, if anything. And um, how is this a guide? Do you know what a guide exactly is? >.>
No. This is bullshit that was made up by ROM hosting sites years ago. Emulators are legal. Commercial ROMs are not.
For any software you purchased, you can have three legal copies. One on the original disk, second on your hard drive and a third as a backup copy. Any fourth or other copy/installation is illegal, and their usage/distribution is (obviously, since it's illegal) against the law. Here in Slovakia, you can get a fine of 170 000 € or go to jail for five years. Though, they have to catch you first. :v:
sorry, was pondering over which category to put the post in, I knew I'd picked the wrong one but hey its 7:42am and I've still got two beers left so please admins, move to what you see fit, just wondering if the local five-ohh are going to fuck me over for playing sonic 2 lol! (the british govt is gettin paranoid as fuck, did you know there are twice as many cctv cameras pointed at you every hour in the U.K than any where else on earth!) sorry about the posts being so slow but this dongle sucks dr zan from bare knuckle 3's elecrtrified penis!
also heard that this theory about downloading them for 24 hrs was B.S because it would never stand up in court, and breach of copyright, even for a day, is still breach of copyright, im just trying to find out if anyone has EVER! had any kind of action taken against them, legal or otherwise. The only reason I bring this up is because of the (Trying to shit you up) messages you see on some large ROM sites before they let you download anything, Enlighten Me Folks!
To my knowledge, pursuit of individual people pirating games isn't something gaming companies are focusing on. If there is an issue, it would be with the distributor. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I have heard very little of people being pursued by big brother for pirating games. I wouldn't worry about it.
I know its abit of a stupid thing to worry about, its just that if a company like say nintendo was to prosecute me, I would not have a prayer in being able to counter their law suit because my (G harddrive is chocca with emu's and roms. so I wonder what are the chances?????? I just wanna know where I stand legally, as most of my ROM collection I have probably owned the original at some point in my younger, game worshiping days (except most of it lol)
Really, it's not much to worry about where I live. You don't wanna go sharing them yourself, but you can take and take all you want and store them on some external hard drive somewhere and nobody's gonna find it. Unless you are suspected of some serious crime it's not like anybody's going to knock down your door and search your place. If you already did the downloading and you had no complaints from your ISP, I think you're good to go. (Some ISPs complain about mass torrent uploading but even they don't really report you or ask you what you uploaded.)
To be honest im not actually worried about it, I just wondered if there is is presidence for a law suit / court case whatever that has happened that is making everybody be like the SAS when it comes to dumping or posting of any backup game data onthe interweb, I know some sites like hidden palace leak games all the time (mostly beta's or unreleases games) which I thought would be even trickier to wangle the legal side "Thought, so who actually owns this data, the programmer? SEGA? the owner of the cart?" This has confused me ever since I stumbled upon the emu scene Is everybody who owns these protos gunna get teabag'd by the developers!
Somewhat relevant. The way I see it, you're probably fine unless you go around nonchalantly declaring that you have ROM's. Even then, You're probably fine with them. Regardless, it's only illegal unless you get caught. :P
Jesus Christ, 1.5 million dollars plus court costs over one freaking game. That's way fucked up. Maybe a fine $500 dollars is more reasonable. That man's life is ruined. This actually makes me want to hate Nintendo. I hate how copyright owners will try to completely ruin someone's life like that.
That guy actually deserves it. He leaked a game 1 week ahead of time, plus showed his credit card number, and receipt online.
Way I see it anything last gen and older you shouldn't have any problems downloading big brother-wise. Typically companies are more focused on stopping piracy on new releases. One example I have is at a lan party on of my friends was downloading wii games. A few weeks later I got a letter from my ISP that if they see it again I get disconnected. So basically what I'm saying is you most likely won't get caught for things, but it is illegal. If anything I'd be more worried about the trigger happy RIAA.
I always believed that if the games are not being sold new, it is ok. When a game is sold as new, The Developer gets the money. But when sold as used by a Game store, Yard Sale, Etc., The seller gets the money. So when you download a game that is new/still being sold new, you are technically stealing from the developer. But when you download an old game that you would only find as used, It is somewhat Ok.
The thing about the sales of used games is, although some developers complain about it. Most of them realised that they fund the sales of new games.
I've been on the losing end of this argument many times, so I can say, roms, in any form, whether ripped by others or by yourself are illegal. It doesn't matter if you have a real copy or not, you are not supposed to have the data on the cartridge or disc on your computer, that's just not how it works. Now I have no problem with emulation, and I bet 99% of the actual developers out there care either when it comes to old games, but there will always be that 1% that WILL, and thats why we have ESA, DMCA, etc... =P
