Gamespot forbis Homebrew?

[blahman]

hmmm... actually, why is this under user submitted news? this thread is more whinge than news to me

 

[Bob Loblaw]

Well, like heran bango said it depends on the bios of the emulator. You can't just say emulators are legal or illegal, it's not that black and white. It depends on the code used. And more times than not the ROMs used with the emulators are illegal.

 

[techforumz]

Ok, I take your point. The BIOS can be copyrighted. But still, the emulator itself is still legal, if you download then it's illegal. Some would argue that it's theft. Others, like myself would argue that it's only theft if they lost something. Honestly, could they POSSIBLY have lost something from me downloading a NES ROM. I don't own a Wii, so VC doesn't count. And no, this isn't news, but I can't move it.

 

[Jdbye]

That's lame. I understand their reasoning, but even Nintendo's official forums aren't that harsh (not the localized one I visit anyway). At least they allow you to discuss programming of homebrew, and mentioning flashcart somewhere in a post won't get you banned.

 

[Seraph]

Ok, I take your point. The BIOS can be copyrighted. But still, the emulator itself is still legal, if you download then it's illegal. Some would argue that it's theft. Others, like myself would argue that it's only theft if they lost something. Honestly, could they POSSIBLY have lost something from me downloading a NES ROM. I don't own a Wii, so VC doesn't count. And no, this isn't news, but I can't move it.

What difference does it make if you don't have a Wii? They're losing more money that you didn't buy a Wii or NES to play the game. They probably aren't "losing" money if you download a NES rom but they are losing sales, and I'm sure you're not just downloading NES roms...I have no disagreements with other sites not allowing these types of discussion. That's why there are sites like GBAtemp to cover topics like those.

 

[INTERNETS]

I believe that they are legal. Some believe that they are not.

That's not how law works, homeboy.

 

[BORTZ]

dude i stopped caring about gamespot after the Kane and Lynch blowout. they had it coming.

 

[cutterjohn]

Well, like heran bango said it depends on the bios of the emulator. You can't just say emulators are legal or illegal, it's not that black and white. It depends on the code used. And more times than not the ROMs used with the emulators are illegal.

Both Connectix's commercial PSX emulator and Bleem used "clean room" reverse engineered version of the PSX BIOS which was perfectly legal at the time.

 

[Grimalkin]

Well, like heran bango said it depends on the bios of the emulator. You can't just say emulators are legal or illegal, it's not that black and white. It depends on the code used. And more times than not the ROMs used with the emulators are illegal.

Both Connectix's commercial PSX emulator and Bleem used "clean room" reverse engineered version of the PSX BIOS which was perfectly legal at the time.

Very true. In actuality, a lawyer can simply win a dispute over any emulators by quote some of the patent laws. (One being: "any product that simulates/emulates the function of another product to perform a function that was not intended by the patent owner.")

Although, who cares really? If we get into technicalities, there are a lot of illegal actions by corporations that are quite obvious. If the company doesn't fight against it, its not a problem right?

Bios = Patented = Illegal.
Emulators who use bios = illegal.
Emulators that simulate/emulate function = illegal.
Company makes a blind-eye towards emulator = legal.

If they had a problem, they would sue -- If they sued everyone that broke copyright laws, they'd probably go broke.

 

[techforumz]

I believe that they are legal. Some believe that they are not.

That's not how law works, homeboy.

No this is how the law works:

"He with the most money wins, always."

I'm just saying that there is no answer written in stone. It's not like I'm going to get sued for download 25-year old NES ROMs. And I might, occasionally download something slightly more recent than NES. But don't most, or at least many of us? I realize that there are some hardcore homebrewers, and I respect their opinion of 'piracy is bad'. But I am equally entitled to my opinion of 'piracy isn't nearly as bad as they say'.

 

[Defiance]

If Flashcards are illegal in the US why are there retailers selling them?

 

[raulpica]

If Flashcards are illegal in the US why are there retailers selling them?

Because they love money

 

[rest0re]

flash cards are like drugs. everybody does them but it's illegal

 

[Defiance]

If Flashcards are illegal in the US why are there retailers selling them?
Because they love money

I loves them money too.

Luckily for modchips there's always MCC that ships to the US.

Posts merged

QUOTE(rest0re @ Mar 9 2008, 12:33 PM)

flash cards are like drugs. everybody does them but it's illegal

Sorry for the double post, but only like 1 out of 200 DS owners even know what a Flashcard is. But unlike drugs they're not bad for your health...

EDIT: Never mind about the double, my posts got merged.

 

[Dylan]

Flash cards are my reason for living.

 

[Shabadage]

Emulators that aren't the product of code stealing (Bleem was one of the ones that Sony somehow proved used their own code) aka cracking open the BIOS with an AR and just dumping it are legal. If you can prove that you use no copyrighted code, you're fine.

Nintendo just says they're all illegal because that's the way they've always been, ever since the first NES emus appeared. It's scary talk. Homebrew is perfectly legal, gamespot is just essentially avoiding the issue by banning all talk about it. Gamespot and Gamestop are two totally separate companies. Gamestop screwed up royally a couple weeks back by putting an R4 in a picture of a DS case they were selling (whoops).

 

[mikagami]

Funny how in the PSP hardware forums there's a sticky on how to install PSP CFW.

 

[Shabadage]

Not really. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some contract with Nintendo saying that Gamespot can't do anything with homebrew or they'll lose exclusives or something like that. Nintendo is very strong arm-ish in that regard.

 

[DS64]

Its the same with teamxbox and ign too, some guy was asking where to get phidias and both of us got suspended for a week. This is why I love this site.

 

[Shabadage]

Actually one of the guys on IGN (Cass I think) has been plugging pocket physics.