Emulation is NOT piracy!

Thank you for reaffirming the obvious ;P


technical note: -> 'gaming discussion section'

 

you're damn right man! a little offtopic for this forum though.

 

"I own the license to this game, which allows mwe to make a copy of this disc for archival purposes if I own the actual retail copy"

Does this license you speak of actually allow backups? none of mine does, in fact, the only game I ever played that encouraged backups was "Life & Death" for the Amiga.

 

None "encourages" backuping. If anything, they'd "encourage" you to buy the same games every time the discs are broken, lost or no longer work


Friendly WP paste:

US and Euro copyright laws actively protect reverse engineering, so only sites that host roms and isos get the stick (causes 'link rot' at least, if the sites aren't taken offline entirely)

"Another legal consideration is that many emulators of fifth generation and newer consoles require a dumped copy of the original machine's BIOS in order to function. This software is a copyrighted work and typically not accessible without specialised hardware... Several emulators for platforms such as Game Boy Advance are capable of running without a BIOS file, using high-level emulation to simulate BIOS subroutines at a slight cost in emulation accuracy.

On the other hand, commercial developers have once again begun to turn to emulation as a means to repackage and reissue their older games on new consoles. Notable examples of this behavior include Square Enix's re-release of several older Final Fantasy titles on the PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, and DS; Sega's collections of Sonic the Hedgehog games. The most recent, and probably the most notable example is Nintendo's Virtual Console, which comes packaged with their new seventh-generation system, the Wii and allows for emulation of NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Sega Megadrive, TurboGrafx-16, MSX and Neo Geo computer games."


The Wii store's retro games are perfectly normal roms that can be played in the emulators for the console they were released on, by the way, so thats at least one way to grab these legitimately even without ownership of physical copies of the games. In digital form though, the difference between such official files and other ones is insignificant, other than on the ethical area (if a market exists, and there is an offer on the market, really, why not just get into the game ? Everyone rode the iTunes bandwagon, despite the general preference to get music by other means)

 

None "encourages" backuping. If anything, they'd encourage you to buy the same games every time the discs are broken, lost or no longer work

Wrong. Life & Death does, it says you should backup the disks and use the backups instead because they need to be overwritten in order to save the current settings and score.

 

Emulation is NOT about piracy
Emulation = freeing code from the chains of proprietary hardware
Emulation = preservation of the old works (see MAME project for instance. Who cares if it's playable -while desirable, not indispensable-, accurate preservation is the main motivation)

 

I am not a software pirate for this.
I am not a software pirate for this.
I am not a software pirate for this.
I am not a software pirate for this.
I am not a software pirate for this.
I use emulation to play what I own on more-capable hardware to save the work on my genuine hardware. I am not a software pirate for this.....

If you're so, you wouldn't say, Right :lol:, :thumb:, thanx for your morals buddy.

 

Moved to Open Discussion.

We get enough threads accusing us that emulation IS piracy...where are they now?

 

people that say emulation is piracy are stupid and have no idea of what emulation is or to be more specific, what emulation is for.

 

Room 408 ?


On another note, whatever happened to the good ol' days when only hosting warez and direct linking to such downloads and sites hosting them was not allowed...

 

We get enough threads accusing us that emulation IS piracy...where are they now?

Isn't that what most n00bs claim when they are caught with illegally obtained material and have their threads closed in a failing attempt to try to justify what they've done to warrant a thread closure?

In my opinion, theres a huge difference between downloading copyrighted materials off of the internet as opposed to using a backup copy you made off of media you legally own.

Everyone who posts here for support is expected to own the original media of whatever game they are trying to emulate as well as made a backup of said media. Even if you otherwise download said software/media/games illegally it is wise to keep it to yourself rather than foolishly admitting as to how you got it on a public forum.

 

I'm a computer nut and I love anything that has to do with them, especially emulation. Everybody likes an alternative, and that's what emulation gives us. All the work and dedication that goes into the emulation community is next to none IMO.

Plus, according to the laws of my country, backing up media you own (music files, videos, games etc...) for personal use is completely acceptable. It was even in todays paper regarding Canada's stance on copyright issues. The proposed change states what I just said, word for word. God bless Canada!

 

Canadian lawmakers are planning to make illegitimate backup copies illegal, regardless if its for archival purposes.

got to love backwards IP laws.

 

Isn't that what most n00bs claim when they are caught with illegally obtained material and have their threads closed in a failing attempt to try to justify what they've done to warrant a thread closure?

In my opinion, theres a huge difference between downloading copyrighted materials off of the internet as opposed to using a backup copy you made off of media you legally own.

Everyone who posts here for support is expected to own the original media of whatever game they are trying to emulate as well as made a backup of said media. Even if you otherwise download said software/media/games illegally it is wise to keep it to yourself rather than foolishly admitting as to how you got it on a public forum.

the ones that really piss me off are the ones who cant seem to accept or comprehend the fact that downloading a game is not the only way to play a console game on a pc. i mean, even for pirated games, they have to come from somewhere in order to be put onto a computer. they dont just appear out of thin air in cyber space and are then leeched by the masses.

if a pirate can take their disc and put it up for people to download then there is no excuse for someone else not being able to do so for themselves either. pirates dont have some exclusive power that makes them the only ones who can get games from their original form onto a pc. granted getting ROM data from cartridge on to a computer to use is a bit more complex than making an image of a disc, but thats not the point really. its annoying when they act like its impossible to do it themselves and are forced to resort to pirating.

 

Yes, but how many people are going to buy Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Atari 2600, etc cartridges and the dumping equipment for each system and dump all of these games when they can google or use another search engine and illegally get what they want?

I'll admit, I'd love to get the broadband adapter for the Dreamcast and dump my Dreamcast games to the PC. *but I'm not filthy rich* I have dumped my Playstation and Sega CD games and use original Sega CD, Playstation, Saturn, and someday Playstation 2 games.

A nice guy *Pete Rittwage* dumped all of my Commodore 64 disks to CD for me, so I have legitimate C64 disk images as well.

 

Canadian DMCA is already out,and worse than american one

 

It's not illegal?!? There goes the thrill... Guess I'll have to think of something else.

 

Canadian DMCA is already out,and worse than american one

I read about that on other websites, even if America posed a similar law I wouldn't let it stand in my way as I consider it extremist in the sense that big corporations are trying to limit freedoms users have even if used for legit purposes/non-commercially rather than illicit purposes.

If they think this law is going to stop anyone from backing up software/games/dvd's then they are sadly mistaken, if anything this will just encourage piracy even more.

The modchips part is a major blow as many coders rely on modchips for emulation and homebrew. I was thinking about ordering a modchip for a Gamecube to back up all of my games myself with a USB Gecko.

Canada is currently the only place close enough that will ship to me in the United States, if they outlaw modchips I'll have to order way out of the country and incur hefty shipping fees.

 

It's not illegal?!? There goes the thrill... Guess I'll have to think of something else.

You might want to try heroin

 

You might want to try heroin

steal a navy battleship and be a real pirate.

 

In Mexico they won't tell you you can make a backup. Here we have a National Associaton of Actors and the Mexican Institue of Intellectual Property which is in charge of getting paid the taxes that projecting films and selling discs causes. They will tell you that you can't make a backup.

What I hate about them (as the second one represent the government) is the manipulation of the information. If you take the time and read the law the pirates are the guys who do it seeking a profit. The law doesn't contemplate doing it for personal uses so it's permitted and it doesn't constitue piracy, mind you.

 

"I own the license to this game, which allows mwe to make a copy of this disc for archival purposes if I own the actual retail copy"

Does this license you speak of actually allow backups? none of mine does, in fact, the only game I ever played that encouraged backups was "Life & Death" for the Amiga.

There's no such thing as licenses since you bought the game without signing a license contract. At least, with these old consoles I was ignorant of the entire idea of licensing, thus with the store owners not having pointed me out I actually bought a license, I purchased the game itself, it's my property and I can do with it whatever I want. At least, that's looking at things from my rational position. Shrink wrap licenses, such as EULAs aren't valid in every country, though in one run by corporate mafia like the US they may be valid.

Besides, who's going to sue me for doing stuff that doesn't hurt companies? It would be rediculous and I doubt it would even would hold in court. I'd simply be wasting valuable time. Anyway, emulation has been proven to be legal time after time, just look up the Sony vs Bleem case.

 

Piracy is a cancer and has to be stopped. If people actually feared the law, they wouldn't do it.

Maybe 5 years getting your **** ruined in jail would teach a valuable moral lesson to you and other scumbags contemplating the possibility of becoming thieves.

Being able to freely backup your media for your personal use must be allowed, but anything beyond that must remain a crime. Problem is that companies may actually lose money to this due to people no longer needing to re-buy their damaged/lost stuff, and that's exactly what should be negotiated.

 

Meh, get your facts straight "Ihateliberals", piracy is already a wrongly picked word chosen by corporations to put a bad name on people who don't want to be ripped off by those same people.

A pirate is someone who fares on the sea hijacking other ships and stealing their goods, therefore doing financial damage by taking away physical items that have had production costs, and which cannot be replaced unless being produced again. As a consequence the number of goods on the market will be lower.

Now compare this to making a clone of a good that comsists of nothing more than 1's and 0's. If you cannot see the difference and keep on insisting "piracy" as coorporations call it is the same as thievery, please refrain from posting in this thread again. The law clearly makes a difference between theft and unauthorized copying / copyright infringement. The thing that pisses me off the most is that lobbies are so succesful into making politicians believe and push forward laws that actually put us back in time.

I am not saying that downloading your games is the right thing to do, because you DO make the potential sales lower by one, emphasis on potential. However every downloaded game does not equal a sale per definition. Look at third world countries and see how people cannot afford a $80,- game, I've seen legit games in Kenya that went for a higher price than they go in the US and in The Netherlands. Meanwhile they have an income that is perhaps not even a 10th of ours. Anyone believing that every copied game equals loss of sales should be struck by lightning instantly, they corrupt the gene pool and the average IQ of the next generation.

Copying stuff is nothing new, we would go to libraries and make a backup copy from there, nowadays the problem has become bigger due to the internet. Ironically it was ISPs that lured people by promising the unlimited free downloading of movies, music and games. Now that people have high speed internet because they can get those goods at a nice pace in unlimited quantities they do intend to get their money's worth. I think that's where it went wrong with people's mindsets.

Being able to freely backup your media for your personal use must be allowed, but anything beyond that must remain a crime. Problem is that companies may actually lose money to this due to people no longer needing to re-buy their damaged/lost stuff, and that's exactly what should be negotiated.

Why is it a problem that people don't have to buy the same goods twice? The only thing companies have done in the last years is telling us that we don't buy a game, but buy a license. Given it's a license we should receive a new copy for free because we have bought the right to play the game/movie/music. They decided to put it on perishable media (discs, harddrives that can get corrupt), so since it's the license we have we can get something new. It would've been different if we had owned the game, in that case we would have needed to purchase a new one of course. See the irony my man? These companies want to maximize profit by milking the honest and ignorant people by trying to get best of both worlds. And that's what needs to be stopped. There's nothing to be negotiated about that, they have plenty of income now from legit buyers, no need to buy stuff twice at all, let them focus on people who do enjoy their products but who have not paid for it.

The problem is that these companies rely on laws that deny progress in society and the movement of technology so that they can stick with their backward marketing strategies and products. Their products do not meet the demands of people, and THAT is exactly why they miss out on money. I honestly hope a solution can be found though, one that is reasonable to both parties, but until then the average person will not be persuaded into falling in these cheap tactics unless by brute force.

 

It's their products, not ours, hence they have the right to license and make as much money out of them as they please, and if people don't like it, they can choose not to buy, buy from another company or even manufacture their own products, that's how it is and that's how it should be.

"Look at third world countries and see how people cannot afford a $80,- game, I've seen legit games in Kenya that went for a higher price than they go in the US and in The Netherlands. Meanwhile they have an income that is perhaps not even a 10th of ours. Anyone believing that every copied game equals loss of sales should be struck by lightning instantly"

I can't pay for a Ferrari, but should I be allowed to steal it just because it's very unlikely I'll ever be able to afford one?