Homebrew illegal? i'm confused.

[arctic_flame]

I've yet to see any proof that the R4 contains copyrighted boot codes.

deufeufeu: Wasn't it the "Sega vs Accolade" case?

Reverse Engineering is not illegal.

Downloading roms is completely illegal. There's not ifs/buts.

 

[Deleted User]

I've yet to see any proof that the R4 contains copyrighted boot codes.

deufeufeu: Wasn't it the "Sega vs Accolade" case?

Reverse Engineering is not illegal.

Downloading roms is completely illegal. There's not ifs/buts.

no it was atari versus Activision I was wrong, there was indeed an atari against intellivision but it was not the same purpose.
wikipediaAfter Activision went into business, Atari quickly sued to block sales of Activision’s products, but never won a restraining order and ultimately lost the case in 1982.
This court case legitimized third-party development and companies as ill-prepared as Quaker Oats (as division US Games) rushed to open video game divisions, hoping to impress both Wall Street and consumers. Companies lured away each other’s programmers or used reverse engineering to learn how to make games for proprietary systems. Atari even hired several programmers from Mattel's Intellivision development studio, prompting a lawsuit by Mattel against Atari that included charges of industrial espionage.

 

[Playset6199]

tl;dr for this entire thread:
If you own the game, you are legally entitled to back it up slash possess a backup copy. How you acquire it doesn't matter, as long as you own a legit copy of the original.

 

[Grimalkin]

tl;dr for this entire thread:
If you own the game, you are legally entitled to back it up slash possess a backup copy. How you acquire it doesn't matter, as long as you own a legit copy of the original.

Wrong. Please read about the new Media Protection copyright law changes.

Oh wait, you're not in north america. I don't know about you guys then... although there's probably other international laws.

 

[Playset6199]

My ignorance, I am not familiar with North American laws, but that's how it is in NZ.

 

[robi]

Nintendo's site also says that any Nintendo Emulator is illegal.

Many people use emulators for homebrew development, which is a perfectly legit thing to do.

With emulators it's all about reverse-engineering the hardware or software to replicate the function without using any copyrighted code or patented process.

This is done all the time with device drivers on BSD & Linux for example.

 

[Playset6199]

Running roms on an emulator for a console you don't own is illegal, whether it be homebrew or not, you are still getting the advantages of the console without purchasing one.
This is because emulators (at least PSX ones) require or include BIOS files from that console.

Basically, emulating is legal as long as you own the console you are emulating.

 

[robi]

Because the PSX emulators require a BIOS file it is infact illegal because the BIOS is copywrited Sony code. When I wrote my message I was thinking along the lines of NES/SNES emulators that are completely free of Nintendo code.

 

[DanTheManMS]

From my understanding: emulators aren't illegal, but the roms can be depending on the situation. Most of the time, the roms are illegal, and distributing them online is certainly illegal. I'm not entirely sure of the specifics though, so I'm not going to make statements that are flat-out wrong.

 

[spotanjo3]

Only legal is to have nintendo ds and buy real nds games.

The flash carts, downloading roms, and etc are ILLEGAL, yes. Because you are getting roms for free and it is illegal and using the flash carts to put roms into it from downloading roms somewhere else are 100% ILLEGAL and it is not fair to nintendo and many companies.

I admit that Nintendo and many companies are an idiots because they dont know how to protect it. Only way to stop the illegal is not to make video games at all and it will be extinct. that's only way to stop the illegal.

The emulators are not because they are purpose for development that's all.

 

[Fat D]

Sometimes emulators contain the console BIOS, which is illegal to redistribute. it's either make a clone BIOS or distribute the emulator without a BIOS.

And many countries allow the use of flash carts for non-piracy uses such as homebrew and multimedia.

 

[dartdude6]

So ROMS are 100% illegal in the US no matter what way you look at the situation? I'm having second thoughts on buying my R4 now... Although, that would mean I would have too settle for my JAPANESE copy of JUS (Yes, I buy all my games legally) instead of using the upcoming english JUS patch you guys are making...

 

[Playset6199]

Realistically, if you own the original games, you might as well call it legal.

 

[magecaster]

hey can i ask a newbish question? whats an R4??

 

[hankchill]

hey can i ask a newbish question? whats an R4??

Oh...My...God...

That is THE noobish question. Go and look it up, I am ashamed to answer!

 

[Remy669]

hey can i ask a newbish question? whats an R4??

Oh come on, this whole forum is about those things. Just use the search function. It's not there for nothing, you know.

 

[Kingwad]

A comprehensive review of the legality of all this can be found at this forum topic. You'll find that copyrighted materials are quite weel protect by the law. Generally you can buy it (really just licensing it) and use it as the manufacturer intended.