Gaming Official Warning! Associating your identity with ROM dumps!

[p1ngpong]

So it has come to my attention that members of this site are attaching their forum usernames and internet handles on ROM dumps. This is a practice that I find extremely worrisome and as an admin here I feel a certain responsibility to warn all of the members here that this practice is extremely dangerous.

By associating yourselves with this kind of piracy you make yourselves EXTREMELY vulnerable to legal action by the developers, publishers and IP owners of the materials you are releasing. Your attempts to get fifteen minutes of internet fame and kudos may very well lead to a lifetime of hardships for you and your family.

Make no mistake about it Nintendo and other entities ARE WATCHING and if they identify a target and have the identity of someone who is costing their business hundred of thousands of dollars they will retaliate against you and claim it back in court. In fact a member of this very site who dumped a game for bragging rights years ago was sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars and had his life derailed because of it.

This is not me scaremongering or me being anti-piracy, the risk is real, it has happened before and it is definitely not worth it!

Do not say that we didn't try to warn you if the worst happens.

 

[Margen67]

Do not say that we didn't try to warn you if the worst happens.

Has anyone actually blamed GBATemp for anything like this?

 

[Pedeadstrian]

Yeah... it's kinda like burning your name into the yard of a house you just burnt down. Some people just need their name out there.

 

[ZoNtendo]

It's like if you want your ticket to the prison

 

[p1ngpong]

Has anyone actually blamed GBATemp for anything like this?

Why would they? It isn't our fault if someone decides to attach their name on a ROM, and we work diligently to protect ourselves and our members from this sort of thing. It's why I made this thread right now.

 

[Deleted User]

Afaik they have been doing this for years, there are a number of sites i go to where the rom has the dumpers name in it, or even the rom has a hacktro or whatever its called

These things

Spoiler: hacktro-- thinky

On a side note, i should really start dumping my own roms, but i'm too lasy for that at the moment...

 

[ZoNtendo]

Nintendo work hard on their game.
They have also a website about that:
https://ap.nintendo.com/

They have a team who work on it.
:report all dumper who give their name:

 

[cracker]

The difference is that the groups releasing the titles do so privately. They don't refer to themselves with the same usernames they release under or in the event they do they make sure it is secure. I've never heard of anyone from a group getting busted.

 

[astrangeone]

Who's stupid enough to release roms under their own username? Granted, I've been wanting to do that for a while, but all of my titles aren't that ridiculously rare either (big names - big titles are covered very well).

I have a collection of my cias on my computer, but they are just private dumps so I can play my own collection in peace.

 

[CheatFreak47]

That's why I don't share my backups anywhere, I make my own backups from my 3DS and my friend's 3DS systems.
It's a horrible idea to be on the distributing end of piracy, it's only a matter of time before you get yourself busted.

 

[Bubsy Bobcat]

Good job I don't release brand new stuff.

 

[nl255]

Perhaps because it really doesn't make that much difference. Do you really think they can't trace you even if you use a no-logs VPN or even multiple ones chained together with a disposable VM?

 

[DinohScene]

It's only a matter of time before one gets caught again.
Home dumps are sweet but leave it to the pro's if you're not certain.

 

[p1ngpong]

It's only a matter of time before one gets caught again.
Home dumps are sweet but leave it to the pro's if you're not certain.

Exactly, the way it was always done was a member of the public would pass on their dump to a scene group to release to protect themselves. I really worry that a naive kid will get into a heap of trouble one day just because he was trying to grow his epeen.

 

[The Catboy]

It is never a good idea to tether your real name or common handle onto illegal activities. Doing so makes it easier to track back to you.
I remember a few years back we had someone who dump a game early and posted pictures of the entire process! Everything for their receipt to their actual face! They were caught pretty quickly and sued for shit tons of money.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm guessing this warning can also be applied to your own games/apps created with the official SDKs and hosting them on the same said ROM sites?

 

[Bubsy Bobcat]

Wasn't there that one guy who got an early copy of NSMB Wii, dumped it and got sued for a ton of money?

 

[chaosrunner]

p1ngpong papa bless good thing they cant catch me cuz im too fast

(i have never dumped a rom and never will)

 

[Plstic]

Afaik they have been doing this for years, there are a number of sites i go to where the rom has the dumpers name in it, or even the rom has a hacktro or whatever its called

These things

Spoiler: hacktro-- thinky

On a side note, i should really start dumping my own roms, but i'm too lasy for that at the moment...

Those are just scene release groups. They use vague names that can't be traced back to them. Also, that filter is awful. I don't get why people like filters like that.

 

[BORTZ]

I know there is at least one rom out there from back when GBAtemp was a romsite in the scene days. The NFO is all about GBAtemp, but I dont think it points to any individuals.

Please, don't associate your dumps with you or better yet, don't dump games.