Is it legal to own a ROM of a game from a compilation?

[noiseredux]

got us a dudley do right over here. I'm gonna have to agree with tinz. I am actually very curious as to why you don't want to do it if it's illegal.

So you're unclear on why somebody would opt to not break the law?

[Hatta]

Yes. Given that the act in question is not immoral, and the chances of getting punished for it are infinitesimal, I don't see why the legal status even enters the equation.

[noiseredux]

Yes. Given that the act in question is not immoral, and the chances of getting punished for it are infinitesimal, I don't see why the legal status even enters the equation.

You honestly can't comprehend that there are some people in the world who just prefer to not break the law? Really?

[MrPopo]

Yes. Given that the act in question is not immoral, and the chances of getting punished for it are infinitesimal, I don't see why the legal status even enters the equation.

You honestly can't comprehend that there are some people in the world who just prefer to not break the law? Really?

There are some people who won't cross an intersection when the hand shows don't walk but one can see for a mile that there is no traffic. I don't understand that mentality myself but it is what it is.

[superlarz]

Yes. Given that the act in question is not immoral, and the chances of getting punished for it are infinitesimal, I don't see why the legal status even enters the equation.

You honestly can't comprehend that there are some people in the world who just prefer to not break the law? Really?

There are some people who won't cross an intersection when the hand shows don't walk but one can see for a mile that there is no traffic. I don't understand that mentality myself but it is what it is.

Thats a bit ridiculous. Anyway, downloading a rom of a game that isn't made anymore and none of the original people who worked on the game are going to see a dime from again really shouldn't be too much of a moral issue. That can be complicated if a game is re-released on the VC of XBLA, but even in cases like that, most of the time the original programmers and designers dont see a cent, only the publishers do. I assume everyone who has such a moral dilemma breaking laws that dont hurt anyone never drive even 1 MPH over the speed limit, seeing as that is illegal too.

Im not suggesting you go out and download PS2 or PSP games that are still for sale, but morally i dont see a problem in downloading a NES game, especially if I own a copy of the game myself.

[Ack]

^^^

Well, here in the UK, I don't think our judges would take too well to this argument... but I do hear that americans do have a kind of ass-backwards legal system - so it might work...

Actually, that doesn't work in American courts either, no matter how "ass-backwards" the Colonies are from the Empire.

[Dakinggamer87]

Thats a bit ridiculous. Anyway, downloading a rom of a game that isn't made anymore and none of the original people who worked on the game are going to see a dime from again really shouldn't be too much of a moral issue. That can be complicated if a game is re-released on the VC of XBLA, but even in cases like that, most of the time the original programmers and designers dont see a cent, only the publishers do. I assume everyone who has such a moral dilemma breaking laws that dont hurt anyone never drive even 1 MPH over the speed limit, seeing as that is illegal too.

Im not suggesting you go out and download PS2 or PSP games that are still for sale, but morally i dont see a problem in downloading a NES game, especially if I own a copy of the game myself.

Yeah, this is how I feel about emulators and ROMs for most part.. I try to track down a physical copy if possible..

[RCBH928]

Where I am there is now law. You can download whatever movies/music/videogames you want. We have brick and mortar stores that live on this(a renting video place that has his FULL library pirated. Lost and other shows can be purchased on the same day)

But on the other hand, a single new game here costs like $90, and the price hardly goes down. $30 game is the deal of the century if you find any. No support(fixing RRoD) console prices only recently came close to their real prices(they used to charge a couple $100 more or so) no second hand market and all of us have to buy a 120-to-220 vault converter otherwise the consoles will burn.
Internet costs $100+ for 12GB/month bandwidth limit, our cable channels that costs like $717/year(that is a different bill from the internet and phone lines) and the newest stuff they have is a year later. So when America watch Prison Break Season 5, they are advertising Season 4 as exclusive and new. Only Sport shows are live , and comedy shows like Conan and Leno are like a day later maybe. Of course news is live too.

What is the solution? PIRATE. Its fair if you ask me. Even cable channels are pirated, there is this German receiver called Dreambox, you can configure it and hook it to the internet and will bring up every satellite channel that moves in the air of our land for like $120 a year! how about that for a discount.

Honestly if I was in America I might not pirate, everything is cheap any ways and second hand market exist with fair shipping prices. I might pirate Snes ROMS only. Those are not worth $10.

[Ack]

Truthfully, all of emulation is considered a legal gray area where nobody's quite sure what to do. You could claim fair use, but it's something that's generally difficult to defend in court on a limited budget, so if it's you versus someone with a lot more money for better legal defense, you may be in some trouble. Claiming it's a backup...well, I don't know of any cases where someone actually tried claiming that. It might be a worthy defense. Willing to call Square up and give it a go?

Since nobody's making money off of many of these games, most companies don't seem to care. Square-Enix isn't one of them, but most major game companies seem to give some leeway because they're not making any money off of them at the moment anyway. Now if a company is making money off of it, then they'll be more likely to fight you since they believe you're technically depriving them of potential funding by not paying for the item, and without funding they go the way of the dinosaur. However, instead of going after individual users with ROMs(since that's not really cost-effective), they tend to go after the places that house the ROMs and emulators, hence why our favorite sites will come and go.

Is it stealing if you're just duplicating the item? Well, the corporate world will likely say yes, but that's based on the belief that you might have been willing to pay for the item in the first place. So, it's certainly possible that you are depriving them of some funding, since you might have been willing to pay for said item, either at full price or a discount. Even if you are just copying an item, you're depriving the principal owners of that property of funding. Sure, it's not much money when one of us does it, but when a hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? It begins to add up.

Now if the intention is to take that ROM and put it out for consumption but at a price, and you don't have a contract with said original owners, then yes, it's very illegal. If you take a book, rewrite half the pages, and offer it up for personal gain without the blessings of the original owner, then it's no different if you edited just one word and did the same. That's a definite area to avoid.

Now if you're using it just as a test case, to see if you might like the game and want to buy it, that's another gray area. Most game companies release demos or shareware for this purpose to PC users, but console games don't often get them. But if you're playing the full version, why would you really decide to buy an official copy. At least that's how the property owners will see it.

Now if you've bought the game, walk in with it and say "Hey, I paid for this already, and I liked it so much I wanted to play it when I didn't have access to that console," well...then they might be more amiable to talking to you because you're hinting at future markets. Or not, it's their call.

As for that piracy argument, if I walk into a bookstore, copy down the contents of a book, and then go home, have I technically stolen the book? I guess not, though I'm quite certain the store will have me thrown out before I got through the first dozen pages.

[elvis]

"Piracy" is not piracy. It's copyright infringement, which is still illegal.

Legality != morality. Do what you feel is right, and if the law conflicts with it, the law is wrong.

Wow... black and white statements much? Go tell that to a child pornographer, murderer or rapist.

Laws should be under constant review to better align themselves with current social norms and technologies. That is the correct answer. Blind anarchy is not.

For the record, I download and use ROMs and emulators. I'll happily pay for them when available (and when they are first-party offerings). But I don't see any financial difference in buying a second-hand (or third or fourth hand) copy of a game (with no money going to the original copyright holder) and downloading a ROM.