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Legal status of emulators

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nanobyte

New member
After some googl'ing it seems to me that emulators are totally legal - as long as they've been created entirely using reverse-engineering (everything else could be called stealing).

From Wikipedia: Virtual Game Station, PlayStation emulation software (sold to Sony, who bought it only after their lawsuit to stop it failed, and then dropped the product immediately)

So I don't think the legal fears are justified at all. PJ64 does not seem to contain anything that would be legally sensitive - not even a reverse-engineered BIOS.

Downloading ROMs and the BIOS is completely illegal, of course, but has nothing to do with the emulator itself.

If you have nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear ... now I don't know if the authors of PJ64 have (had) access to a N64 SDK, that would of course be highly illegal, and I wouldn't dare making the software commercial in that case either ...

The only thing that bothers me is that they develop a highly valuable piece of software in their spare time, put tremendous effort and energy into it, and then have to release it for free - for fear of legal issues :/
 
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N

nanobyte

New member
Take a look at http://fms.komkon.org/VGB/ :

You can currently get both VGB-Windows and VGB-MSDOS for the total price of $25 (or lower, if you use coupons). The complete list of features and the list of new features and fixes can be found in the documentation.
 
Cheezyphil

Cheezyphil

megahuge gaming bwner
The thing about legallity is that only if you have the device, you're allowed to have an emulator. Something like that. But then again, if you already have the game, why get the emulator?
 
CF2

CF2

Pretends to make sense
Most communities have adapted a don't ask, don't tell policy regarding legality. Downloading roms, even if you already own the game is illegal (I think). The only way to legally get a rom is to dump it yourself.
 
ScottJC

ScottJC

At your service, dood!
I'll sum it up in one sentence, Emulators are legal... Emulators packed with roms or the roms alone are not. End of.
 
B

Ballard

New member
axcc123 said:
they ain't legal dummy that's is why it's free
Click to expand...

Emulating hardware as freeware, with the source-code provided, is not illegal. So you're kinda right. If somebody (and there are those who do) were to sell an emulator with or without ROM images, that would be subject to prosecution.

There is no law protecting hardware from being emulated in software... yet. Even if the hardware is still patented. Hardware patents and software patents are different.
 
D

DeathRain99

New member
Cheezyphil said:
The thing about legallity is that only if you have the device, you're allowed to have an emulator. Something like that. But then again, if you already have the game, why get the emulator?
Click to expand...

Because, for me anyways, I prefer to just hop on my computer with my gaming pad than tear an old console out of a box, find the game, and have to play it there. My computer is my home entertainment system. :matrix:

Also, for ILLEGAL purposes, some people -with the system- use emulators to play downloaded games. Not saying I haven't done this. :p
 
Toasty

Toasty

Sony battery
nanobyte said:
The only thing that bothers me is that they develop a highly valuable piece of software in their spare time, put tremendous effort and energy into it, and then have to release it for free - for fear of legal issues :/
Click to expand...
They don't have to release it for free. I'm sure they would lose a great deal of their user base if they didn't though. Think about this - probably about 99% of the people who use this emulator have pirated ROMs to use on it. If Project64 became commercial, it wouldn't be such a great stretch for its users to pirate the emulator as well. Add that to the fact that people are much less likely to donate to a commercial project and Project64 loses money by charging money. If people truly want to help out financially, and if they have the means to, they will. When half of the people who use your software are unemployed high-schoolers, you realistically can't expect it to be a very lucrative project. Also, even though there's no direct law against emulating hardware, there's also no direct law against developing P2P software; yet, if you do (and you live in the U.S.) you're just begging for a lawsuit or at best, a cease and desist, because the powers that be feel that it's wrong for people to develop software that could potentially lose them revenue - even if that software is perfectly legitimate.

That said, I've always appreciated the fact that Project64 is free and that poor guys like me can enjoy it without spending money that we don't really have. Soon as I have the means, though, they can count on another healthy donation. :)
 
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J

jahra!n

New member
My views on pirate distributers is kinda like modern day a Robin Hood, the pirates buy, or sometimes steal, from the rich and GIVE to the poor.
 
E

elektrixxx

New member
They don't make more copies of N64 games now anyway so there's no profit loss anyway (until the release of the Revolution at least).
 
EmuNoviceUser

EmuNoviceUser

Just Having Fun
The legal issues of emulators are largely unclear. The legal issues of ROMs are even more unclear. This is because people (especially new to something) believe everything that they read but don't research what thye have read. If they see it repeated again and again, then it must be true (like the "24 hour ROM rule" that is total BS, but many people believe it and repeat it when others ask).

My interpretation is that emulators fall under a number of different situations including Fair Use educational issues which make them legal, reverse engineering of certain software components within emulators taken from the actual console which can make it illegal if it violates certain TOS rules/laws, and many other factors. The only way to answer this question fully is to ask the company who's console you are mimicking on an emulator-by-emulator basis if it is a legal violation (but not "if they agree with you doing it or not").
 
Malcolm

Malcolm

Not a Moderator
Nothing is unclear.

Emulators are not illegal - as stated above, not yet. (Ballard)

ROMs are illegal; they be downloaded, dumped, backed up, etc.. if you have a ROM of a commercial games it is illegal. Ask the big 'N', sega or, amazingly enough, atari.

Ok, I love you bye-bye
 
Z

zilmar

Emulator Developer
Moderator
Malcolm said:
Nothing is unclear.

Emulators are not illegal - as stated above, not yet. (Ballard)

ROMs are illegal; they be downloaded, dumped, backed up, etc.. if you have a ROM of a commercial games it is illegal. Ask the big 'N', sega or, amazingly enough, atari.

Ok, I love you bye-bye
Click to expand...

Actually it is very unclear, some emulators can be complete legal, and others could have big issues. It is not a yes/no answer. Roms can and can not be legal, it can depend on how you get them can depend if they are legal. I posted back on the front page a link to the Emu Faq which looks at this in to a lot of depth
 
J

jahra!n

New member
The kind of 'Illegalness' that the catagory of roms and copyright infringments and such is not really how other things can be considered illegal. Copyright infringing is totaly subjective to who ever holds the copyright, its not up for the local authorities or feds to come after you for doing it. Its just a legal issue where the person can be held liable for paying money to the copyright holder for infringing copyrights if the owner desides to.

Their is no 'theft' being commited when you download something pirated. This is becuase there is no proof that any loss has been applied to the own For example, someone steals your car; your car is gone. Someone robs your TV; your tv is missing. In the issue with downloading something pirated and not paying for it. There is no way to prove that if you couldnt download it, you would have paid for it meaning that there was no loss in profit to the company since the person wouldnt have paid for it in the first place.

So the only legal issue is between Nintendo and the makers of emulators and the rom distributers, no one else. They can sue if they want, but i doubt they would get that kind of money out of some individual and it wouldnt be worth the expence and hastles of hiring lawyers anf filing lawsuits against some kids for download roms or making emulators.
 
A

axcc123

Hungry For Answers
jahra!n said:
The kind of 'Illegalness' that the catagory of roms and copyright infringments and such is not really how other things can be considered illegal. Copyright infringing is totaly subjective to who ever holds the copyright, its not up for the local authorities or feds to come after you for doing it. Its just a legal issue where the person can be held liable for paying money to the copyright holder for infringing copyrights if the owner desides to.

Their is no 'theft' being commited when you download something pirated. This is becuase there is no proof that any loss has been applied to the own For example, someone steals your car; your car is gone. Someone robs your TV; your tv is missing. In the issue with downloading something pirated and not paying for it. There is no way to prove that if you couldnt download it, you would have paid for it meaning that there was no loss in profit to the company since the person wouldnt have paid for it in the first place.

So the only legal issue is between Nintendo and the makers of emulators and the rom distributers, no one else. They can sue if they want, but i doubt they would get that kind of money out of some individual and it wouldnt be worth the expence and hastles of hiring lawyers anf filing lawsuits against some kids for download roms or making emulators.
Click to expand...

your right nintendo is not going to waste their time or money suing and hunting people down that would take forever in a day and billions of dollars spent.
 
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