Which is pretty fucked up logic.
Comment on Fan-made Mario Kart 64 PC port released, with track editor and ultrawide support
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 23 hours agoEmulators ARE 100% legal.
It’s the roms that are illegal.
tonytins@pawb.social 23 hours ago
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
Not really; The emulator doesn’t use any copyrighted code, but the ROM is copyrighted. That’s just basic IP law.
What is fucked up logic is Nintendo encrypting their ROMs, then providing decryption keys on the console. So the emulator itself is legal, but actually booting a ROM requires decrypting it, which requires keys from a legitimate console. Nintendo has argued that those keys are illegal to use in an emulator, even if the user rips them directly from the console that they own. So you have the keys. You own the console they’re stored on. But it’s illegal to use those keys anywhere except on the console they came on, because Nintendo said so.
yucandu@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Because US DMCA law has provisions in it about copyright circumvention. Same thing led to the “you can’t repair your own John Deere tractor” debacle.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
It’s kind of brilliant, in a Lex Luthor kind of way…
catloaf@lemm.ee 22 hours ago
Why do you say that?
tonytins@pawb.social 22 hours ago
It’s like being handed a MP3 player but being told you’ll go to jail for playing music you ripped yourself.
catloaf@lemm.ee 22 hours ago
Generally, ripping for personal use is not litigated, only distribution. It may technically be illegal in most places, but then, reproducing someone’s work without compensation should be prohibited.
trevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 hours ago
If you are in the US, ROMs aren’t illegal either. You’re just required to rip them from a cartridge/disc you acquired legally (including second-hand purchases) and you can’t distribute it to others. It’s the latter part that makes it illegal (but not at all immoral). If you wanna do that last part, god bless. Fuck these companies.