legal position of roms and emulators

[optimus$prime]

hi there!

i want to make a presentation about emulation. thus i need to know legal position of roms and emulators.
for example when it's legal to download or use roms. possession of roms etc...


thx for help :)

[Agozer]

Othes can chip in and explain in more detail, but I'll give a rough rundown (and at the same time, my own opinion).

1.) Downloading copyrighted games, wether they be CD images or roms is illegal unless the copyright holder has given his/hers explicit permission that the game(s) can be downloaded from the net for free. Public Domain roms are another matter.

2.) You are free to make a backup from a game/games you own, but this doesn't mean that you can legally download the games that you own from the net.

3.) A lot of romsites like to mention the 24-hour rule. That is, you can download a rom from somewhere and keep on your computer for 24 hours. After this you must delete the rom image. This is complete bullshit, and an urban legend of sorts.

4.) Emulators are perfectly legal, provided that they are not bundled with roms and copyrighted BIOS files. If the BIOS is embedded into the emulator, the emulator is illegal.

[WhiteX]

http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-98-99/copyright-infringement/

[Agozer]

Excellent link there.

[WhiteX]

Google is my friend.

[zilmar]

http://www.overclocked.org/emufaq/EmuFAQ_index.htm

this is the best description I have seen about the legality of it all

[optimus$prime]

thx for all the help!

but what if i have the original cartridge of a game for example super mario bros (nes)? is it then legal to download this rom?

[Niggy G]

It's still ilegal.

You can only make a backup of 'your' cartridge. Even if then end result is a byte-for-byte replicar. The method you used to obtain the rom would still be ilegal.

[Jale]

This is Nintendo's point of view about emulators and ROMs:

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp