Whenever I play a video game with an emulator, I'm sometimes a little bit concerned about video game emulation (or piracy in general). Here's a question that probably no one has ever asked: will emulation, at a point in time, be considered as entirely illegal? I've read a thread somewhere about the same problem and some person said that it technically is illegal, but it is the distribution of ROMs and ISOs that is straight up a criminal excuse. Also, I'm probably not the only one who downloads numerous amounts of ROM sets and emulators and, believe it or not, I'm used to downloading huge amounts of games manually for my own PlayStation ISOs collection. I feel that I've realised that I'm doing something wrong, that I'm playing a game that I don't normally own, that it's unfair for me to do that and I ruin the industry of some of the big companies. What do you think about the question?

The original distribution for older games dissolve over time.
The only way to find such games, outside of collectors, is through digital copies.
It is shared in this case, not stolen.

Corperate greed hurts developers and studios more than piracy ever has.

The thing is, on this site emulations are technically legal, since you do not actually own the games but are actually streaming them from Vizzed's servers to your PC via the plugin. No idea how NOA got away with taking their 2,000 games from the site but hey, no one did anything about it and let those idiots raid our site. 

So yes, it is legal and safe. The plugin is also legal and quite accurate to how the original games were played. It's actually better than the flash and java emulators and that's why people use it. 

It sucks.
Most cannot afford going through court to protect data-sharing.

The commerce for Intellectual Property drops after a reasonable amount of time, the lengths that Nintendo goes to milk an IP is not, going so far to threaten others to court, so they could re-sell something, but this time without having to pay the original IP developers.

Making something legal/illegal just takes money, but Nintendo can't make it look justified.

I'm probably not supposed to say this, but it actually isn't legal, no. Abandonware is what it's called in emulation circles as a way of saying that the game is no longer making any money and so is fair game for emulation and ROM/ISO hosting, but in actuality that is not a real legal term, and won't hold up in court. That would be like fighting charges of Grand Theft Auto by arguing that the car had sat in your neighbor's yard unused for ten years so you decided to take it because they weren't benefiting from having it anymore.
If it were legal, why could Atari and Nintendo both tell us what we can or can't host here? It does indeed take money to press the issue, but it's illegal whether it's pressed or not.



Now you're not going to get in trouble for using Vizzed, David could get in trouble, but you won't. I'm not saying anyone is good or bad for emulating or not emulating, I'm just honestly answering an honest question, as I see no sense in not answering someone if they want to know the truth about it. Decide as you see fit.

Cars are physical property, where as games are digital. They are copied, not stolen.
To use that analogy, it's a copy of a car no longer in production, and now the manufacturers are displeased that anyone is driving a copy that they didn't pay for, despite the fact that copy cost no one anything.

Yeah, obviously you have to buy a digital copy since that is a more reasonable option. In fact, the ROMs seem to be more illegal than the emulators themselves. There are some ROMs marked as Public Domain that you can use with no trouble at all. As for corporate greed, then yes, I can agree that it is more hurtful than piracy alone.

@Eirinn: You're right, I should decide on how I feel about them. I've been using them since my first computer without 'getting caught', therefore I can play the games only for personal use, right? In fact, my family is often affected with 'secretive' piracy; my mom is used to downloading movies off of torrents, but that's another story. EDIT: As far as I know, David got in trouble once the games owned by Nintendo were removed by the company. Thank goodness there is an alternate website.

On3On : I'm not here to argue semantics, I just answered his question honestly, and gave an example to consider. Besides, the data belongs to the developer and is leased to the user. They all say you are not allowed to copy said data and redistribute it.

Like I said, I don't judge anyone that uses emulation, but if asked for an honest opinion I see no need not to give it. He honestly wanted to know. If you wish to emulate, by all means do so. I don't think any less of you for it, but we can't pretend it's legal to break the law. The game data and the very IP belongs to the people that made it, just like the lyrics to a song belong to the lawful owner (writer or whoever they sold the rights to), or a website belongs to the one who made it.

Anyway, this is kind of off topic for the thread. It was made as a question, not a debate. I certainly don't mind discussing it with you via PM though, if you want.

If you say so.

The thing about so-called "abandonware" is that it actually does have to be abandoned. What's written as a law is technically always in effect but it really only matters if it's actively enforced. Take SEGA for example. It's against the law to pirate their IP, but they either don't care or don't put forth any effort to stop it like Nintendo does.

Basically, it's only abandonware if it never actually winds up in court. If they push the issue, it's not abandoned.

On3On :

Games may not be the size of a car, but they are composed of matter. You may not hold them in your hand, but the computer you play them on does hold them in its "hand".

ericorsio555 :

This is something I've debated over time and time again. Sometimes, I had lots of fun. But over time? That fun waned and was replaced by mounds of guilt. I've extensively emulated games of many consoles. But I always had more fun when playing games I actually owned.

I also got into the Steam trading game scheme. I would trade games from Humble Bundle (primarily) for other games and money. I even helped others get into it, even quite recently. While not considered illegal (to my knowledge), it is against their terms of service. Guilty again. (I do know Indiegala encourages trading, however. It's the Humble codes and the amount of time trading replaced the most important things in life that is the issue).

The question always comes back to "Do you feel guilty?". If so, get out! And quick! Otherwise, you might get caught in a self-destructive cycle that might not be easy to get out of. And the fun you once had becomes a chore.

To be honest I only play roms for old consoles because I'm a poor white boy who has to pay for things like bills and such. I do sometimes have enough to get some things, but most of that takes a bit of time. I don't mind people using roms and emulators, if corporations do then that's another story.

Your internet provider knows when you do illegal downloads most of the times. No one is gonna show up to your house or fine you.

On3On : I agree with you. Nintendo has gained nothing from 95% of the games they removed from Vizzed and other sites. Most of the people who actually made the games won't ever see the money made from legal downloads. The people at the top will get it.

DragonSlayer22 : When you play a game on Vizzed the rom is downloaded to your computer. It isn't streamed from Vizzed. This makes it technically illegal, which is how Nintendo got them removed.The mobile emulation David is working on might be different though.

ericorsio555 : Emulators are 100% legal.

@supernerd117: I don't feel that much guilty about the whole situation. I don't know if my usual 'fun' with the emulators will get waned for me: will I still be that 'illegal' (employed or jobless) retro gamer guy who emulates games all day or will my 'lifelessness' be in smaller doses? I dont know; time will tell.
@earthwarrior: Well, maybe the ROMs aren't, but thanks for lightening up my mood with this comment. Everyone has been doing it for years now, so am I emulating them. 

Emulators are legal to a certain point, whoever wrote the code has rights to use it however they please which gives them copyrights from people who would steal it, like Nintendo or another major company. However, the companies have IP rights on characters and so forth, we never had the right to take the box art or screenshots and place them on vizzed.

So its basically 50/50 at this point and no one wants to change that.