copyright laws

[Malcolm]

Also a few posts up some one said that it’s Ok because you’re aloud to copy software for a hard copy just in case your original is damaged. Here’s the story for that.

When you buy software you aren’t actually buying the software. You’re buying a licence to use that software. Now, you can make as many copies of the software you wish, it is also, in theory, legal for you to distribute those copies. When it becomes piracy is when you give out your CD key and/or licence number. Now this is only the case for licences for a primary home type user. If your wondering why you can barrow a version of Microsoft Word from your college/university this is because the own multi-user licences, this is also true about company licences.

Getting back to roms...

The rule stated above does not comply with video game cartages, while it does apply to games on CD/DVD (IE: DC, PSX, GC, PS2. XBox). Why it doesn't work with carts is because it is a hardware CMOS chip on your cartage that stores the game information, and is not actually considered software. BUT it does work in the case of CD/DVD media because the information on the disks are in binary or ASCII format and are considered software, but because they don't contain a licence, you are only aloud to have 1 copy of the media and the original, and your not aloud to distribute the copies.

I hope this clears some more stuff up

 

[Eagle]

Also a few posts up some one said that it’s Ok because you’re aloud to copy software for a hard copy just in case your original is damaged. Here’s the story for that.

When you buy software you aren’t actually buying the software. You’re buying a licence to use that software. Now, you can make as many copies of the software you wish, it is also, in theory, legal for you to distribute those copies. When it becomes piracy is when you give out your CD key and/or licence number. Now this is only the case for licences for a primary home type user. If your wondering why you can barrow a version of Microsoft Word from your college/university this is because the own multi-user licences, this is also true about company licences.

Yes this is correct. My school sells students copies of an original Windows/Visual Studio/Office CD for $5 a cd (so visual studio would be about $25) These are copied CDs, however due to a special with Microsoft called the MSDNAA program, the school is allowed to do this and they provide you with a unique white or yellow CD key sticker. So, yes it is legal to copy a cd as long as you own a legal license. However, not all software comes with a CD key and in this case, you can not copy the CD and distribute it.

 

[AlphaWolf]

The rule stated above does not comply with video game cartages

I hate to sound like an ass, but thats incorrect, it does. Code in the rom IS copyrighted material, be it software, information, or whatever you want to call it, the only difference here is the medium its stored on. Just because something is stored on a different medium doesn't change the applicability of the copyright laws. I don't know how things are run in Canada, but in the US and most of the EU countries, they don't have separate rules for whether the medium is a CD, a VHS tape, a cassette tape, plain paper, vinyl, or in our spefic case, solid state storage, its all under the same law here.

the information on the disks are in binary or ASCII format

same thing for solid state ROM chips

Again, it is perfectly legal to dump your own cartridges to a file on your PC, just so long as its for your own personal use, meaning you can't give it to anybody else, unless you destroy the other copy.

 

[petronius79]

If my old NES gets damaged will Nintendo now provide support for it? Can you buy anywhere NES games officially from stores and not second hand? If there is no profit from Nintendo then why do they yell about ROMS? If they are illegal then bring the NES and the SNES back to the stores.

Please dont share the manager's hypocrisy. They want to get profit from us. Their profit rises constantly so they can be happy that playing old ROM games wont damage their profits. And anyway laws are made to be broken. And if laws are made for the corporation's profits and now for our profit then screw the rules.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well see the thing with that is they believe they might be able to sell that title again later - such things have happened, like when activision sells their classic atari game packs, which have 15 or so old atari games each.

If its their copyright, they consider it an asset, and corporations being the way they are, want to maximize profit, if letting that go public domain serves even ANY potential for harming profits in the future, then they will not let it, unless it can potentialy bring some sort of higher return in profits than what they would see losing.

BTW, thanks to disney's lobying, copyrights now last 95 years instead of 75 before manditarily going public domain, and they are even trying to push them to longer durations too. That means it will be that much longer before you realy can play these copied games legaly.

 

[petronius79]

like I said: screw them and download whatever you like. Just watch for viruses and porn dial ups