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Valve’s latest Steam Deck video featured a Switch emulator.

Guilty_AI

Member
The contrast looks like shit. Looks better on the Switch.
Screen_Shot_2020_07_07_at_2.28.58_PM.png
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
As I said, it's a gray area. However, this falls under copyright and trademarks and whatnot which means you need permission to use it outside of the creator's restrictions. Hence, why it's only legal to rip games you already own to use on your own devices and not share with others because then it goes under different laws.
Are you a lawyer? Or are you just applying what you think is the case across the board?

Because from what I’ve learned from working with our corporate lawyers is that I don’t know what I think I know.
 

lukilladog

Member
So going by some of the arguments here, if you buy a nintendo game and never play it or leave it as a piece of your collection... You are hurting Nintendo because that is not on their best interest's or expectative's. Lol, as if nintendo cares about your personal expectatives after selling you the game.
 

Bragr

Banned
Are you a lawyer? Or are you just applying what you think is the case across the board?

Because from what I’ve learned from working with our corporate lawyers is that I don’t know what I think I know.
You don't know what you think you know? huh?

This is pretty common stuff. This is how copyright and trademarks work.

From Nintendo.com:

Can I download a Nintendo ROM from the internet if I already own the authentic game?

It is illegal to download a Nintendo ROM from the internet whether or not you own an authentic copy of that game.

Although Australian copyright law now allows limited 'format shifting' of certain copyright material for private and domestic use, this right does not allow the copying of video games to a different format.

Also, the limited right which the Copyright Act gives to make backup copies of computer programs does not apply to Nintendo video games.

People making Nintendo emulators and Nintendo ROMs are helping publishers by making old games available that are no longer being sold by the copyright owner. This does not hurt anyone and allows gamers to play old favourites. What's the problem?

The problem is that it's illegal. Copyrights and trademarks of games are corporate assets. If these vintage titles are available far and wide, it undermines the value of this intellectual property and adversely affects the right owner. In addition, the assumption that the games involved are vintage or nostalgia games is incorrect. Nintendo is famous for bringing back to life its popular characters for its newer systems, for example, Mario and Donkey Kong have enjoyed their adventures on all Nintendo platforms, going from coin-op machines to our latest hardware platforms. As a copyright owner, and creator of such famous characters, only Nintendo has the right to benefit from such valuable assets.

Isn't it okay to download Nintendo ROMs for games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited? Aren't they considered "public domain"?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and using, copying and/or distributing those games violates Nintendo's intellectual property rights.
 

keefged4

Member
You don't know what you think you know? huh?

This is pretty common stuff. This is how copyright and trademarks work.

From Nintendo.com:

Can I download a Nintendo ROM from the internet if I already own the authentic game?

It is illegal to download a Nintendo ROM from the internet whether or not you own an authentic copy of that game.

Although Australian copyright law now allows limited 'format shifting' of certain copyright material for private and domestic use, this right does not allow the copying of video games to a different format.

Also, the limited right which the Copyright Act gives to make backup copies of computer programs does not apply to Nintendo video games.

People making Nintendo emulators and Nintendo ROMs are helping publishers by making old games available that are no longer being sold by the copyright owner. This does not hurt anyone and allows gamers to play old favourites. What's the problem?

The problem is that it's illegal. Copyrights and trademarks of games are corporate assets. If these vintage titles are available far and wide, it undermines the value of this intellectual property and adversely affects the right owner. In addition, the assumption that the games involved are vintage or nostalgia games is incorrect. Nintendo is famous for bringing back to life its popular characters for its newer systems, for example, Mario and Donkey Kong have enjoyed their adventures on all Nintendo platforms, going from coin-op machines to our latest hardware platforms. As a copyright owner, and creator of such famous characters, only Nintendo has the right to benefit from such valuable assets.

Isn't it okay to download Nintendo ROMs for games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited? Aren't they considered "public domain"?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and using, copying and/or distributing those games violates Nintendo's intellectual property rights.
Lol. Nintendo.com. "It's illegal because we say it is"
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Lol. Nintendo.com. "It's illegal because we say it is"
Yes the law isn’t black and white on the issue of games you own. There seems to be conflicting opinion. The fact that thousands haven’t been sued implies that it’s not clear cut for this purpose.

Our resident legal Nintendo expert will disagree of course and they could very well be right, but unless a copyright lawyer says unequivocally it’s illegal, I don’t know what’s true.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Isn't it okay to download Nintendo ROMs for games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited? Aren't they considered "public domain"?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and using, copying and/or distributing those games violates Nintendo's intellectual property rights.
Man, statements like this convice me Nintendo is surviving in spite of its stupidity
 

lukilladog

Member
You don't know what you think you know? huh?

This is pretty common stuff. This is how copyright and trademarks work.

From Nintendo.com:

Can I download a Nintendo ROM from the internet if I already own the authentic game?

It is illegal to download a Nintendo ROM from the internet whether or not you own an authentic copy of that game.

Although Australian copyright law now allows limited 'format shifting' of certain copyright material for private and domestic use, this right does not allow the copying of video games to a different format.

Also, the limited right which the Copyright Act gives to make backup copies of computer programs does not apply to Nintendo video games.

People making Nintendo emulators and Nintendo ROMs are helping publishers by making old games available that are no longer being sold by the copyright owner. This does not hurt anyone and allows gamers to play old favourites. What's the problem?

The problem is that it's illegal. Copyrights and trademarks of games are corporate assets. If these vintage titles are available far and wide, it undermines the value of this intellectual property and adversely affects the right owner. In addition, the assumption that the games involved are vintage or nostalgia games is incorrect. Nintendo is famous for bringing back to life its popular characters for its newer systems, for example, Mario and Donkey Kong have enjoyed their adventures on all Nintendo platforms, going from coin-op machines to our latest hardware platforms. As a copyright owner, and creator of such famous characters, only Nintendo has the right to benefit from such valuable assets.

Isn't it okay to download Nintendo ROMs for games that are no longer distributed in the stores or commercially exploited? Aren't they considered "public domain"?

No, the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant as to its copyright status. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available. Therefore, the copyrights of games are valid even if the games are not found on store shelves, and using, copying and/or distributing those games violates Nintendo's intellectual property rights.

That is the same nintendo that sued TheLastgamer for importing and selling nintendo games in Australia lmfao, be careful about the source of your gospells.
 
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Guilty_AI

Member
This is normal copyright terms, and Playstation and Xbox follows this too.
So what? Its still dumb. That kind of tiny brain corpo mentality just shows this industry needs pirates if it wants to stay alive. Thank god we have people with actual sense that don't just dumbly follow these things, industry would half-buried in the cemetery otherwise.
 

Edgelord79

Gold Member
Answer is on Last Stands + show with Rick Hoeg.



Answer: In the United States, most likely illegal due to copyright law. However, it has not been litigated so it’s still very grey due to a variety of factors. Nobody really knows what would happen.

Basically a company may send a cease and desist letter and it would be in the persons best interest to listen due to the David vs Goliath scenario. So they do.
 
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No, the presence of the iNES header cannot be considered an evidence because as I've already explained Nintendo could have decided to adopt the iNES standard.
In fact (again through an illegal data breach) we know Nintendo has tools for such purposes.
You don't understand the difference between evidence and proof. Google it.

I've said this before in the part of my post you conveniently ignored in your response: while the presence of the header isn't definitive proof that Nintendo got these ROMs off the internet, nothing you have posted so far can be considered proof to the contrary either. The headers could be there because Nintendo downloaded those ROMs. It could be there because, for whatever reason, someone at Nintendo needlessly adopted iNES standard even though none of their own emulators have ever used it. I'm going with the former simply because it requires fewer assumptions and is easily explained by laziness on the part of the developers.

I see you didn't catch my hint ;-)
Your conjectures are based on the presence of iNES file format (format developed by outside* programmers which became a standard) in the roms included with Animal Crossing (and later Wii VC etc.) but you are probably unaware that the same could be said for the Famicom roms in Animal Crossing only this time with an internal* format (.qd) instead of the standard .fds format, which of course leaves no doubt Nintendo was the source.
Yeah, yeah. I know about Clu Clu Land D and how it's the only AC ROM that is lacking an iNES header. Does this mean that it was sourced internally? Most likely. Is it proof that the ROMs that do have headers were also sourced internally? Not really.

The game was incredibly obscure. It was a Japan-only FDS exclusive that wasn't even sold in stores, and if you wanted to play it you had to make your own copy at one of the Disk Writer terminals scattered throughout Japan in the limited time it was available. Very, very few people owned working copies of this game by the time working emulators started popping up, and there is a very real chance that the ROM couldn't easily be found online at the time AC was in development, leaving Nintendo no choice in the matter.

Your idea that the presence of a header automatically meant Nintendo are selling roms sourced from Internet is fallacious.
I never said that. All I said was that I consider it to be the more likely explanation.

I would remind you that our little exchange started from your claim that [ROM sold by Nintendo] "was almost certainly pirated" which is quite a bold statement since there is no concrete evidence that support it.
It's no bolder or more definite than the claim made by you and others in this thread that the entire story has been "debunked" or whatever. At best, you have shown that Nintendo could theoretically have sourced these ROMs internally, and that they have definitely done so in other cases. Proof for either claim could only ever come from Nintendo themselves, and I'm pretty sure that no matter which side of the argument you're on, we can all agree that they will never, ever provide it.
 
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