Are ROMs legal?

[SSJup81]

I'm not much of a gamer, not like how I was maybe 15 years ago or so, and for the most part, I was really into hanging out in the arcades and playing arcade games. I don't own any of the new generation consoles. Most up-to-date thing I have is a Nintendo Gamecube, and I originally bought that years ago for the sole purpose of playing Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. Prior to that, the PS2, and I received that as a gift. I still rarely have games for it since I was never much of a Sony person. I use my PS2 for DVDs more than for gameplay...especially my region 2 DVDs I import from Japan. Darn my liking of Jpop/Jrock...and getting the concert DVDS. ><

Anyway, when I was younger, my cousins and I would just rent games from the video store to try them out. If it was a liked game, more than likely, we would ask "Santa" (depending on our ages, of course, at the time) or our parents for the game for Christmas. Is the price for game rentals really high now? Back then, renting games didn't seem to cost much at all. Seems it'd be easier to just rent a game if it's readily available as opposed to bothering with the hassle of ROMs/Emulators for these newer games.

[Quailboy]

Originally Posted by MMM

No more pirate talk, mateys. QB how many times do I have to ask you?

I lol'd @ my PM.

Thanks for the slap on the wrist officer.

(please excuse my sarcasm) ^_^

[Ronin4hire]

Originally Posted by Quailboy

lawl @ Sega CD

Yeah.. it sucks for the most part.

But I managed to get an awesome Konami game named "Snatcher" for it. It was made by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame.

I also got Sonic CD and Lunar. Though I never really got into those two.. even though Sonic CD is said to be the best 16 bit version of Sonic.

Edit: I hope my post is not considered pirate talk (I'm being sincere)

[MMM]

Considering QB has now gotten two warnings and is looking at a temp-ban if he can't stop advertising his pirating, I would say I have to hold you to the same standards, Ronin. (i deleted those posts.) Talking about doing illegal activities is against the rules on JF. By not having a rule against it, it is the same as JF endorsing it. So please...we can talk about the act of pirating, and whether or not we think it should be illegal or not (just as we can talk about teen pregnancy, etc.) but specifics of actual activities we do should not be discussed.

[iPhantom]

Why is telling that we pirate against the rules? Censoring freedom of speech in JF? It's not like people will go pirate because they heard Ronin and Quailboy did... piracy is not an unheard topic. If you think Quailboy is advertising by saying that he pirates, then the whole thread is advertising because it tells people a lot about piracy.

Posting links to piracy yes, should have a STRONG rule, but not this.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by iPhantom

Why is telling that we pirate against the rules? Censoring freedom of speech in JF? It's not like people will go pirate because they heard Ronin and Quailboy did... piracy is not an unheard topic. If you think Quailboy is advertising by saying that he pirates, then the whole thread is advertising because it tells people a lot about piracy.

Posting links to piracy yes, should have a STRONG rule, but not this.

There is no guarantees of freedom of speech. It is in the rules. We can talk about certain things, but saying things like "I got a big bag a weed I am going to smoke" or "I am going to go play this game I just burned" is "illegal behavior" (as I think it says in the rules) and not acceptable.

I made the thread to talk about the legalities of ROMs. It is not a place to talk about what and where stuff is taken from. Maybe that seems odd, and maybe it is, but that's the way it is.

[FeyOberon]

Originally Posted by iPhantom

The 2009 reality is this: piracy is not stealing.

Mincing words to justify breaking the law?

By the way, if you look it up in a Websters, "steal" means to "take dishonestly and secretly." It has nothing to do with anyone losing anything. Stealing is in the act of taking.

In the instance at hand, the dishonesty and secrecy would be in taking without the knowledge or consent of the publishers.

[iPhantom]

Originally Posted by FeyOberon

Mincing words to justify breaking the law?

By the way, if you look it up in a Websters, "steal" means to "take dishonestly and secretly." It has nothing to do with anyone losing anything. Stealing is in the act of taking.

In the instance at hand, the dishonesty and secrecy would be in taking without the knowledge or consent of the publishers.

Copyright infringement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Read that, even the United States Supreme Court agrees with me. Anymore questions?

[Odin]

Originally Posted by solemnclockwork

... Cartridge based games are a problem in that regard as the machines to make the ROM are illegal.

That is not at all correct. The machines to read and write ROMs, are quite common place in any sort of electronics, servicing, development or manufacturing. I myself have a number of these devices for various applications. There are absolutely no restriction on the possession, or the sell of them. They are simply tools.


As for the legality of copying ROM data, it goes something like this:

• In order to legally copy the data, you must own the data in the original distribution form.
  (ie ... you must have the cartridge)
  
• The copy is legal only as long as you still own the original form.
  (in other words if you give away or sell the original, you must destroy the copy
  
• The legality is not effected by the originals functionality
  (ie: even if the original is no longer functioning, the copy is still legitimate as long as you still posses the original)
  
• Although, possession of the copy is legal, you have no rights to run the software without ownership of the original operating hardware.
  (Because the original software is tied to a specific hardware platform, you must own the original platform, to legally run it
  

The legality of the emulator has a similar set of rules: The part of the software that actually emulates the original hardware is completely legitimate to own, whether you own the hardware or not. However because most emulators also contain a copy of the platform's firmware, this is covered under copyright rules. Firmware is software, therefore you must own the original hardware, with its original firmware to legally run the emulator. Like the cartridge data the hardware need not be functional. There are a few exceptions, such as an emulator for a Atari 2600. This is because that was an extremely simple device that had no internal firmware. This is a rare exception.

[MissMisa]

No, it's not legal.

Despite what people think, the majority of the time it isn't even legal to own a copy of a ROM even if you own the game. The law states that you can't distribute ROMs unless you own the rights to them, so 99% of the time the ROMs are downloadeded from illegal, illegitimate sites.