sorry guys, but i'm a law student and i feel obliged to comment here. maybe this'll get me banned from the forum as i've already been reprimanded for my question about an iso i downloaded, as that apparently falls under the "asking for warez" rule on the forum rules? the rule is none of my business; it's up to you what you want discussed on your forum. but in this thread, you guys are spreading false information and bad law as a justification for that rule, and that's why i have to say something.
i'm not sure why onequestion was directed to a website detailing the intellectual property office of the government of singapore. i didn't see anything about him being from singapore on the forum. maybe i missed it? anyway, sg's intellectual property laws, like most of their other laws, are a little draconian (it's illegal to spit on the sidewalk in singapore). and even if onequestion is from singapore, it's unclear whether their laws apply in this matter.
downloading games for which you already own the rights is at worse a legal grey area in the united states.
in my case, i purchased ff7 for the PC and found that it didn't support my video card and that it lacked mouse support. it sounds like crap and won't go any higher than 640x480/16. thusly owning the consumer rights to the work that is ff7, i downloaded the psx iso of it along with espxe to enjoy my game at a higher resolution and with better sound quality. while the laws of the united states don't specifically allow for what i did, they don't specifically prohibit it, either. and it's consistent with the fair use doctrine from landmark rulings such as Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, in which universal (rather ironically) sued sony to keep the betamax vcr off the market.
someone said "it's not a copy of your game, it's a copy of someone else's." this is just wrong, whichever side of the IP debate you're on. look at what valve software is doing with the steam system and you'll see why this is nonsense. when you buy computer-related IP, you're not buying the physical disk, or the code on the disk. you're buying a licensce to use the information in certain limited ways. making one backup copy of it for your personal use is ALWAYS included in this licensce. no statue or court in the US has ever once suggested otherwise.
if you cleaned up your approach a bit and removed the blatant factual errors, you guys could make a compelling legal argument against what i just said in court, and you might win. you might not. but if you're that far on the side of the intellectual propertyrighters, one wonders why you're in the emulation business at all?
nothing personal, but i had to set the record straight.
i'm not sure why onequestion was directed to a website detailing the intellectual property office of the government of singapore. i didn't see anything about him being from singapore on the forum. maybe i missed it? anyway, sg's intellectual property laws, like most of their other laws, are a little draconian (it's illegal to spit on the sidewalk in singapore). and even if onequestion is from singapore, it's unclear whether their laws apply in this matter.
downloading games for which you already own the rights is at worse a legal grey area in the united states.
in my case, i purchased ff7 for the PC and found that it didn't support my video card and that it lacked mouse support. it sounds like crap and won't go any higher than 640x480/16. thusly owning the consumer rights to the work that is ff7, i downloaded the psx iso of it along with espxe to enjoy my game at a higher resolution and with better sound quality. while the laws of the united states don't specifically allow for what i did, they don't specifically prohibit it, either. and it's consistent with the fair use doctrine from landmark rulings such as Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, in which universal (rather ironically) sued sony to keep the betamax vcr off the market.
someone said "it's not a copy of your game, it's a copy of someone else's." this is just wrong, whichever side of the IP debate you're on. look at what valve software is doing with the steam system and you'll see why this is nonsense. when you buy computer-related IP, you're not buying the physical disk, or the code on the disk. you're buying a licensce to use the information in certain limited ways. making one backup copy of it for your personal use is ALWAYS included in this licensce. no statue or court in the US has ever once suggested otherwise.
if you cleaned up your approach a bit and removed the blatant factual errors, you guys could make a compelling legal argument against what i just said in court, and you might win. you might not. but if you're that far on the side of the intellectual propertyrighters, one wonders why you're in the emulation business at all?
nothing personal, but i had to set the record straight.
