Ack wrote:It wouldn't take much. Say we tell people to emulate a Star Wars-based video game, let's say...Super Star Wars. It only came out on the SNES and Virtual Console. And then Disney gets wind and sends us a cease-and-desist letter because we are telling people to violate their copyright and potentially providing a means to do so(such as someone linking a website that has a ROM). If we fail to comply within the amount of time they specify, they can take us to court(and it being Disney, they would too).
From then on, we regularly accrue legal costs as a pitiful handful of average guys from a variety of backgrounds go up against the full weight of Disney's legal department. It doesn't matter if we have a chance to win, Disney will keep doing whatever they can to prolong the fight, because we'll be hemorraging money while we do it. If we win in a timely manner, they'll do their best to delay and appeal. They know how to do this because they have plenty of experience. That's how most major corporations win legal battles, and a rich and soulless empire like Disney would be more than happy to do it to little guys like us.
I don't think it would work out like that...The damage to the Star Wars brand by recommending that someone play Super Star Wars (or linking to a ROM of the game for that matter) would be so insignificant that it would not be worth the legal fees associated with sending a cease-and-desist letter (much less the legal fees associated with a civil action).
In these circumstances, I also think that there would be an issue as who would be enititled to send such a letter. Would it be Disney, who currently holds the rights to all Star Wars movies, music, etc.? Or, would it be the Super Star Wars' developer, who probably holds the copyright to the game's code? Finally, would it be the game's publisher, who probably has the exclusive right to distribute the game in North America? I don't know the answers to these questions, and I suspect it would cost a lot of money to figure them out...
mjmjr25 wrote:Not being a smart guy here. If that's the case (lawsuits, etc)...how do the dozens of rom sites exist...and get sponsors? The same big rom sites have been around for awhile and they advertise...they aren't hiding.
I don't like emulation personally, but I can't imagine it's a serious concern or all these rom and MAME sites wouldn't be flourishing? Maybe there's some trick i'm not seeing...?
It costs a lot of money to do anything about them, and in many cases, it probably is not worth it. (I love old arcade games as much as anyone, but honestly, the value of some of these dated IPs is not worth the cost of sending a cease-and-desist letter, much less the cost of a full-blown legal action.) Also, people hosting ROM sites are probably judgment proof, and the copyright holder could only really obtain injunctive relief. (So, basically, the copyright holder would end up spending a bunch of money and the only thing it would receive in return is an order directing the ROM hosting site to take down the offending file.) Finally, there are a lot of ROM hosting sites located on servers overseas, and it would be nearly impossible (and incredibly expensive) to enforce any order forcing one of those sites to shut down.
EDIT: As discussed above, I also suspect that there are a lot of issues related to the standing of corporate entities to enforce the copyrights on these old games...I mean who would you get a cease-and-desist letter from if you were pirating one of
Jaleco's old games?
