I'd say yes, even if you own the game. Most of the people that use them download the games, illegal. To make the program you need to reverse engineer it, illegal. Only way that it might be iffy is if you actually own the game and didn't make the program yourself.

 

Doesn't really need to be a poll for this, considering it is factual.

It depends on what you are emulating. So yes and no, you need to be more specific.

 

I'd say yes if you're downloading an emulator/ROMs that you don't personally own. Just like music and all that!

 

Of course not!

Most are for old old games that the game corps no longer make money off.

Edit by Vulcan - There is no such thing as abandonware. Whether they are making money or not, they still own the copyright. Unless they explicitly turn the game over to the world as freeware, it is illegal to download commercial ROMS, period.

 

The Emulators are nor illegal. Just the ROM's if you dont own the original copy you must delete them after 24Hours or it becomes illegal.

Edit by Vulcan - There is no "24 hour" rule. It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge, period.

 

I think they're not illegal. Emulators just make is so you can play games on a different platform. It's like vmware in a sense. However to play those games you usually have to download them, so that part of it is illegal. But I really doubt just the emulators by themselves are illegal.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad_Handlez89 The Emulators are nor illegal. Just the ROM's if you dont own the original copy you must delete them after 24Hours or it becomes illegal.

The 24 hour thing is a joke that the people who did steal the stuff made up to avoid feeling sorry for it.

You are going to do it whatever we say, so does it really matter?

Emulators aren't.
Playing ROMs you don't own are.

 

if you are using out of production games and are not making a profit from them then you should be ok. its the same with many types of media from what ive been told

Edit by Vulcan - There is no such thing as abandonware. Whether they are making money or not, they still own the copyright. Unless they explicitly turn the game over to the world as freeware, it is illegal to download commercial ROMS, period.

 

emulators aren't illegal, If you download a ROM, and you don't actually own the cartridge, It is against the law to download.

Edit by Vulcan - It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge.

 

Are the ROMS illegal to down;oad if people don't sell them any more?

Edit by Vulcan - Yes. It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge, period.

 

Emulators are 100% not illegal. Downloading a PS2 BIOS is illegal. DLing ROMS you dont own is also illegal.

 

Emulators themselves aren't illegal. So I voted "No".

 

The software itself is not illegal. However, possessing and using a ROM which you do not own the associated game cartridge/disk/media is. Hell with the system though, we need to keep old school games alive somehow.

 

Don't hold me to this, but as I understand it you keep intellectual property for 50 years after your death so your next of kin can still collect royalties but after that it becomes public property. I'm not sure how companies owning something, patents and copyrights factor into this but it is unlikely to affect ROMS as they are so recent.

If you really want to know, this might be worth a read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Property
TL; DR for me though...

 

The emulator programs themselves are not illegal, downloading roms for games you don't own is though.

Edit by Vulcan - It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge.

 

Emulator's arent donwloaded ROMS are

 

Please learn to read stickies.

Quote:

"It includes game ROMs used by emulators, downloading ROMs over the internet is illegal. Note however that the emulators themselves are perfectly legal, since they are independently developed software. So you can talk about emulators, just don't talk about acquiring ROMs." Reminder about Software Piracy

 

Ugh, this debate is just as stupid as the "Bit Torrent is illegal" thing. So much mis-information. Roms are not illegal either, it depends what the rom IS. There are non-commercial roms and emulators that are freeware, so you cannot classify all emulators or roms as "illegal". Even when using an illegal rom on an emulator, only the rom is illegal.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by t4ct1c47 Please learn to read stickies.

I do I must have just missed that

Lighten UPooo

 

emulators are legal, but if you have a working PS1/PS2 emulator your breaking the law, that bios file you have to run is not leagal to have anywhere except on the PS, its a direct extract from the PS1/PS2 systems and is not legal at all, just a heads up to your PSX users

Personally i like Gens because i own just about the entire genesis libary anway.

 

they are illegal if you dont own the game that is rom'ed, but if you do then it is not illegal

Edit by Vulcan - It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge.

 

They are legal. They can be used to play illegal games or run apps illegally. Which is what i do

 

Just to keep hammering the nails...not illegal...if you own the actual game.

Edit by Vulcan - It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge.

 

Emulators aren't illegal.

Bioses of unowned consoles are illegal.

Rom backups of unowned cartridges/discs are illegal. I believe there is a loophole of having an unowned backup up to 24 hours before required to delete. Don't quote me on that and correct me if wrong, though.

Edit by Vulcan - It is illegal to download commercial ROMS whether or not you own the original cartridge.

 

NO Emulators are not illegal unless they use copyrighted code from the orginal Console etc.

However running a ROM on an Emulator is defintaley illegal!

Edit by Vulcan - Running a legally acquired ROM in an emulator is not illegal. What is illegal is downloading commercial ROMS off the internet, whether or not you own the original cartridge.