Would Emulators Be Considered Piracy?

[Lawr]

So?

[blackmage_nuke]

Yes, but alot of things are considered piracy

[Captain Maxx Power]

Emulation in and of itself isn't strictly piracy. The theory goes that the hardware required to run the actual game (read: the console) is under copyright protection, but because the software being used doesn't utilize the components that are patented then it doesn't fall under that catagory.

What IS illegal however are the use of BIOS files from the consoles if you don't own the console with that BIOS version, and the use of ROM's if you don't own the game.

[Lawr]

Yeah, thanks, and I kind of had a feel for the whole BIOS files if you didn't have the system.

[Madame Adequate]

Yeah Maxx pretty much answered it. If you don't own the game you get a ROM for, it's piracy.

[snacks]

I read somewhere it wasn't considered that until you get bios's for whatever system you are trying to emulate. Somewhere in a thread here in fact.

This is a tricky subject anyways.

You could infact correct me if need be.

[Renmiri]

Yeah, just don't ask or offer for BIOS and you can talk about it and download the emulators at will. I have ran FFX-2 International using PCSX2 and even have a tutorial on how to do it

4 - How to run PS2 games on a PC - Emulators - Final Fantasy Project

[Lawr]

Yeah, they call me Bikke the Pirate, I've got ROM franchises. I was just wondering what part of it was piracy.

[JKTrix]

In the case of Nintendo, this is what they have to say:

Copying of any video game for any Nintendo system is illegal and is strictly prohibited by domestic and international intellectual property laws. "Back-up" or "archival" copies are not authorized and are not necessary to protect your software. Violators will be prosecuted.

Nintendo's official policy is that ROMS are illegal, regardless of if you 'own' the game or not. I'm fairly sure this can extend to all systems, software and music. You don't own the software, you only own the right to use it.

[Araciel]

Yeah, just don't ask or offer for BIOS and you can talk about it and download the emulators at will. I have ran FFX-2 International using PCSX2 and even have a tutorial on how to do it

4 - How to run PS2 games on a PC - Emulators - Final Fantasy Project

a tutorial??

hee hee hee

anyway, i think that emulation is all illegal and whatnot and i don't know where the line is (using roms if you own the game anyway, etc.) and frankly i don't care. piracy is a term applied, in this case, when someone copies and sells, which is not the case to the casual emulator such as myself, so really emulation is never piracy- copying and selling roms or bios is, which most people who emulate would never dream of doing, since the internet allows you to find and play pretty much any game you want free anyway.

[Renmiri]

Well, in practical terms, no one can send me to jail for having emulator software (or just a tutorial about it) on my site but they can send site owners to jail if they make BIOS / ROMS available for download.

Guess what, my site won't be having them. I'm allergic to prison food

[Lawr]

I hear Slop tastes good.

[Discord]

The whole piracy story is getting on my nerves. "By pirating, you're harming the film industry"... Excuse the expression, but how the smurf can I harm an industry that gives 40 Millions per film to idiots and good-for-nothings like Tom Cruise? I think I'll get very depressive shall he get 39,5 the next time.

[Skyblade]

I think the whole point is moot. Whatever laws/policies their may be against owning the stuff, it's not enforced. Yeah, playing it in front of a representative of the company will probably get you sent to jail, but I think anyone that stupid should be locked up on general principles anyway. I do use emulators, and I play ROMs. I also utilize every resource at my disposal to get games legitimately. If the games are not availible without using an emulator, than clearly the company is no longer profiting off the games and are just being jerks if they try to sue me for it, and they'll have lost all my respect and probably get quite a bit of bad publicity from it too.

[Captain Maxx Power]

In the case of Nintendo, this is what they have to say:

Copying of any video game for any Nintendo system is illegal and is strictly prohibited by domestic and international intellectual property laws. "Back-up" or "archival" copies are not authorized and are not necessary to protect your software. Violators will be prosecuted.

Nintendo's official policy is that ROMS are illegal, regardless of if you 'own' the game or not. I'm fairly sure this can extend to all systems, software and music. You don't own the software, you only own the right to use it.

The irony of this law is that whilst Nintendo have a problem with you emulating their games via copies or back-ups, strictly speaking this doesn't apply to original copies. In short you can run it off the CD/DVD, but just not off a ROM dump...