Emulation: Is it Legal?

[LelandStanford]

If it is, why is there such a stigma against talking about how to rip GC discs for example? That's the only way you can test to see if an emulation project works in the first place.

[JKKDARK]

If you dump the BIOS from your own console/handheld and make an image/rom from your own original games, yes it's legal.

[Agozer]

To answer your topic: Yes, emulation is legal. It is not legal when you use an emulator in conjunction with ROMs or CD images you haven't dumped yourself from the carts/discs you own (i.e. got them from a friend or downloaded them from the Internet).

I think the logic behind that particular rule is that if you want to try your own games on an emulator (I'm pretty sure you're referring to Dolphin and its ilk), you are also smart enough and resourceful enough to know how to rip discs yourself or at least search the Net for answers, instead of asking directly. Yes, the information is out there.

[Toasty]

In some countries, circumventing copy protection is illegal, so depending on where you live, ripping GC discs (which are encrypted AFAIK) may be illegal. At least one court case in the US has ruled that circumvention of the protection on DVDs, such as in the case of media PCs that store movies, is acceptable though. Add that to the fact that you're using Nintendo's own hardware (trying not to get too specific here) to rip the content and I doubt any legal action against someone who ripped their own GC game for their own personal use would stand up. But that's just for copy protected games like GC games.

Other games, such as PSX games have no copy protection, so anti-circumvention laws do not apply to them. Still, since ripping is commonly associated with copyright infringement, it's probably prudent to avoid its discussion on forums such as these, especially since it's easy to Google and find the answer to your questions.

[Cyberman]

This was posted in the suggestions forum.
Talk of the town is the closest I can think of where this belongs. Anything you want to discuse is fair game there (within reason that is). This thread is a question not a suggestion. Therefore it is being relocated to Talk of the Town.

Cyb

[Miretank]

Hence we have 23416846546541321354684 threads about it, and the search function is still not used! YAY!

[A.I.]

Is Emulation legal? Put it this way. Is breathing legal? Yes, but we still take it for granted and the longer you think about trying to breath the more pointless it is worrying about it, like this thread. Just relax and emulate man!

[Cyberman]

I might note that it is best to emulate in private ... though (I just had to say that )

...
Cyb

[blizz]

I might note that it is best to emulate in private ... though (I just had to say that )

...
Cyb

Everytime you emulate a Kitten dies?

[smcd]

Everytime you emulate a Kitten dies?

Every time you emulate god ^H^H^H nintendo kill a kitten