![]() ![]() A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. Here's the relevant piece of info from the DMCA:Ĭomputer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. In 2006 the DMCA made an exemption to the illegality of acquiring ROMs (though a little loosely worded), which seems to say that if the hardware is obsolete and "not reasonably available in the marketplace," then you can circumvent its copy protections to preserve it. ![]() You cannot distribute the copy or ROM that you make. What you can do is make a backup copy of your game under Fair Use in the event that the original should be accidentally destroyed. One of the long-standing myths around ROMs is that if you own - or at one point owned - the original version of the game, then you can download the ROM from the Internet. They do, however, have a detailed document on their site explaining that ROMs are illegal and that emulators facilitate their use and damage the company (though crucially stopped short of calling emulators illegal). ![]() With all that said, Nintendo never launched a case against a console emulator. Back in 2003, they successfully sued a Hong Kong company for selling a device that backed up Game Boy games to PC. In 2009, Nintendo won a lawsuit against a company that made a device allowing people to play Nintendo DS ROMs downloaded from the internet. Sony launched a lawsuit, but despite leading Bleem! to bankruptcy, they failed to win the case. Aside from the above case, the PS1 emulator Bleem! faced Sony's wrath after it was a bit too vocal in its marketing of the emulator's powers to play PS1 game ISOs (essentially ROMs, but for CD-based games). What the Video Game Companies Are SayingĪs you can imagine, game publishers aren't too keen on emulators. Accolade (1992), when Accolade's reverse engineering of Genesis titles was deemed legal under fair use laws. The most relevant case relating to emulators is Sega vs. The emulators themselves are legal, and while certain game companies made it clear that they don't like them, you can download and install them without fear of legal repercussion. The software is created using a lengthy process of reverse engineering to decipher just how a given console works. So Project 64 is an N64 emulator, PCSX 2 is a PS2 one, and Dolphin is the name of the GameCube emulator. ![]() What the Video Game Companies Are Sayingįirst, it's important to clarify that the emulator is just the software that replicates the hardware of a given console."This is by no means a slam dunk argument," said Bambauer, "But it's by no means a silly one." After all, Nintendo could argue that by emulating the game on your phone, instead of buying their official port of a game, they're losing money. And Bambauer is quick to admit it's not a perfect one. Now, this isn't black and white just a potential legal argument. "The argument would be there's no market harm here that it's not substituting for a purchase." "You're not giving the game to anybody else, you're just playing a game you already own on your phone," said Bambauer. He says he could imagine a few possible defensible scenarios. "If I own a copy of Super Mario World, I can play it whenever I want," he notes, "but what I'd really like to do is play it on my phone or my laptop." In this case, downloading a ROM could be legally defensible. "Fair use is a fuzzy standard, not a rule," Bambauer explained. Then, according to Bambauer, you might be covered by fair use. But is there a legal defense? Possibly, if you already own a Super Mario World cartridge. ![]()
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