roms laws, what's LEGAL and what is ILLEGAL

**JuGz** · May 26th, 2002, 15:30

First of all i apologize for my sucky english.

Hi guys, i'm having a headache, because i'm trying to understand what roms are legal to put on a site and what aren't, there's who told me that snes roms are legal, there's who told me that those are legal just if u have the original cartridge (and then i can't put it on my site?), same for amiga adf and cps1 stuff. NOW is there anyone who can help me explaining or at least giving me some resources to search myself (i tried looking to many websites but i couln't find anything about roms laws)?
I wanna know what i risk if I put, for instance, a N64 rom on a website or a cps2 one...
please clear my mind

cheers

P.S. I hope I won't get banned, I don't think that this is an illegal thread..and I didn't know where to post it so I did it here.

**Jaz** · May 26th, 2002, 16:08

The only ROMS that are legal are non-commercial ROMS (ie: demos created by peope of games that aren't ever going to be `officially` released.)

Every other commercial ROM you'll find for any system, is illegal.

There are loopholes that suggest that if you actually own the real game, it's OK to have the ROM. But here at Emutalk, any discussion or links to ROMS is forbidden.

I'll lock this thread now, to avoid a ROM discussion getting out of hand.

If anyone thinks they can explain this better than me (which they probably can), feel free to unlock this and post).

**Eagle** · May 27th, 2002, 00:45

I believe the so called "loopholes" Jaz talked of are non-existant in legal terms. They are rumors to make it sound like its ok it copy the cartridge.

**Jaz** · May 27th, 2002, 01:28

That's why I said `suggest`..

***Gorxon*** · May 27th, 2002, 19:23

/me opens topic

I really don't think this topic should be closed, as it can be very interesting and informative.....and I think that a discussion about it would be good....

It should be closed, however, if it gets out of hand...

**DuDe** · May 27th, 2002, 20:32

The whole topic can easily be summarized, in an English that even a 5 year old can understand :
"R0Mzee womzee - NOT leagie weagie".

**blizz** · May 27th, 2002, 20:42

Emu FAQ here:

http://user.cavenet.com/neisz/emufaq99.htm

**Tri-Force** · May 27th, 2002, 21:36

what about roms that were made to be sold but were never released (terranigma) are they legal? someone should figure out the whole legality and lay it down here in a sticky. loopholes and all. let there be nothing to be asked.

**pj64er** · May 28th, 2002, 00:04

terranigma was out in japan. the only legal roms afaik are open domain ones. This includes demos, homebrew games, and games that were never released (StarFox 2 - SNES)

**JuGz** · May 28th, 2002, 02:14

Thank you guys, but what can you risk if u put illegal roms on a website?

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