That's absolutely awesome. I have a sudden urge to do a similar thing with one of my original Nintendo's.

Quote:Original post by Evil Steve
Going a little off-topic: Why is it illegal to get the ROMs if you own the game? That's like saying that you're not allowed to make backups of your PC games (Does anyone actually do that?) It just strikes me as particularly stupid...

I think it has to do with the DMCA and copyright protection circumvention. The NES cartridges had some codes they sent back and forth to make sure they were "authentic."

What I don't aunderstand about the whole copywrong issue is, that there are tons of great games for these systems and some of them just weren't released in North America/Europe. So since not even the hardware is sold/in production anymore, what 's the problem with that? There are/were even some hpbbyist translation projects for some of these games (Seikken Densu II aka Secret Of Mana 2?).
If find this no-no-policy riduculous and I'd wish for all ROMS being out of production/sale to become PD after some (say 10) years, but I guess this is just wishful thinking *sigh*...

Quote:Original post by Toolmaker
Your friend should read the nintendo site. They state on their site that owning ROMS(Even if you do own the original cartrigdes yourself) is illegal.

Bzzt! Wrong. Downloading ROMs is like downloading MP3s - it's legal if you own the copyrighted material already. Uploading either one for download, however, is emphatically not legal. Funny, eh?

Quote:Original post by Toolmaker
Raed the DMCA(Or whatever it's called) act. It's illegal in the US to make backup copies of software you legally own.

Bzzt! Wrong. You are allowed to make a backup copy of software you own. What you are not allowed to do is circumvent copy protection. That means that if the software contains copy protection such as asking for a key of sorts, the copy must as well. And therein lies the problem. Most people want to interpret "backup" as "unprotected copy."

Sorry, no dice.

Quote:Original post by darookie
So since not even the hardware is sold/in production anymore, what 's the problem with that?

Consider the recent Namco Arcade Classics collections that have been released for Xbox, PS2, etc. If the rights to those games, most of which are about 20 years old, had reverted to the public domain after 10 years, Namco wouldn't be able to bilk us for games we've already played. But don't blame Namco. Blame fucking Disney, who got patent and trademark law changed so Mickey Mouse, etc wouldn't fall into the public domain!

Quote:Original post by Toolmaker
Back to the copyright thing again though and the quote "We don't care if you copy SOME games for personal use, but as soon as you try and sell them, consider yourself busted".

That's not a statement of law, that's the statement of one company, Sony, so don't apply it to the products/rights of any other company. The reason it's relevant is because patent and/or copyright law, I forget which, holds that a product shall revert to public domain if it is not "vigorously defended" (their language, not mine) by the rights holder. This is why Nintendo cracks down so fiercly on Metroid and Zelda "tributes": if they don't, those properties will no longer be theirs. The sole caveat is that the rights holder must demonstrably have become aware of the infringement, which is why making a Harry Potter Quidditch game and distributing it solely by SneakerNet amongst your family and friends is not a problem.


Finally, boolean, please tell your friend that he's done some bitchin' work there! Very nice, very cool.

Quote:The reason it's relevant is because patent and/or copyright law, I forget which, holds that a product shall revert to public domain if it is not "vigorously defended" (their language, not mine) by the rights holder. This is why Nintendo cracks down so fiercly on Metroid and Zelda "tributes": if they don't, those properties will no longer be theirs.

It's neither actually. That rule relates to trademark law. This means you can make your Metroid or Zelda tribute game, as long as you don't actually use those words anywhere in them.

Quote:Original post by Evil Steve
That sucks. I think you're allowed to make backups of software you purchase here too (Well, I hope you are, I've done it a few times before when the CD started getting all scrated up.

Here's the law as best as I understand it in the US.

You're allowed to make a single copy for archival purposes in addition to whatever you have. You can use this copy as long as both copies are not in use at the same time. (such as one person having two computers, he can't use Word at the same time on both computers).

You cannot circumvent any copy protection to make the archival copy. In a billion years, when Disney finally allows Mickey Mouse to go into public domain, you will still not be allowed to circumvent copy protection for any pd nintendo game.

Now, you have to ask yourself, are you circumventing anything by making a ROM of a game you have and using a legal emulator.

It's untested in court, so there is no answer.

Quote:Original post by Oluseyi

Quote:Original post by darookie
So since not even the hardware is sold/in production anymore, what 's the problem with that?

Consider the recent Namco Arcade Classics collections that have been released for Xbox, PS2, etc. If the rights to those games, most of which are about 20 years old, had reverted to the public domain after 10 years, Namco wouldn't be able to bilk us for games we've already played. But don't blame Namco. Blame fucking Disney, who got patent and trademark law changed so Mickey Mouse, etc wouldn't fall into the public domain!

But wouldn't Namco be able to do that, too if the games were PD? I mean you'd still need a license from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to make games or their recent platforms, don't you?
Some possibility to still make this legal would be a slight relaxation, which makes going PD dependable on actual use of the trademark/IP, e.g. if Namco didn't port/re-released a classic title or didn't use the game's theme for more than 10 years, it would become PD automatically.
So maintaining the rights would fully fall into the responsibility of the copyright owner, allowing for a very transparent handling of this.
But I'm not a lawyer so... [sad]