are roms illegal

That is sadly wrong, if a company has gone bankrupt then the copyrights are usually transferred to one of the companies that had lend money to the bankrupt company. Copyright does not seize to exist at any reason except age, if the game is older than 30 years then it's fair game, if it isn't then IT IS ILLEGAL. No matter if it isn't even produced, sold or traded between people any more, it doesn't matter, it's illegal.

Would a company sue because of it? No, most likely not, especially not if you just download but it's still illegal, and stop saying it's not because you're talking out your ass.

That argumentation is flawed, uploading does not equal downloading thus you cannot say that downloading is illegal because uploading is. Some countries even state that downloading isn't illegal at all. (Canada anyone?)

It cannot be stolen property either because the definition of stolen is that something is taken from you so that you are not in possession of it any longer. (look it up if you must)

The media would like you to make that analogy because it strengthen their case with those few people who have any morality left when it comes to pirating digital media, but if you consider it logically it doesn't make any sense at all.

Imagine walking up to a child, taking it's teddy bear, creating a copy of it and then giving the child the original teddy bear back. Is your copy stolen? Absolutely not, it's an illegal copy because you did not pay for the right to own it, so whoever is selling it is loosing out, but in no way whatsoever is it stolen.

The real question here is morality, does the ability to download a copy of a game prevent you from buying the games you like and actually deem worthy of your time? If it does then I'd consider downloading to be bad, if it doesn't then game on. As long as Nintendo don't provide easily accessible demo's and downloadable full games then I'm going to make sure people can get the games.

So if someone at Nintendo is reading this, write me and I'll make RomUlation a place to download demo's and full downloadable games (after having paid of course)

 

Re: so this whole illegal roms thing

Okay really, why on earth start a new thread? What's wrong with the old one? Does it have cooties or something? Merged...

Now to the question.

I don't believe it has to do with server location. (since we're in the US)

The fact is that Nintendo could shut us down yeah, and they could shut the 20 other sites down, but what would happen? Exactly, new ones would pop up to fill the void, it'd be like chopping the heads off of a Hydra, every time you remove one 3 new ones pops up.

The music industry has somewhat realized it and try to fill the void themselves with online services. The way I see it ROM sites are a reaction to a distribution and pricing issue with games. Obviously no one wants to pay €40 without having thoroughly tested a game and made sure it was worth more than an hour of gaming. Nintendo fail at providing this service, users are reduced to making their decision based on boxart and perhaps, if lucky, a few images on the back of the box. Naturally this is unacceptable, thus the need for ROM sites. Obviously there are no proper demo's for us to serve since they aren't created in the first place save a few lousy ones that are included in magazines and distributed to stores.

The way I see it Nintendo really ought to move on my previous offer for a number of reason.

1) Users already have the means to run the demo's and purchased digital copies, so unless Nintendo sees the need to get custom carts out to users then the client base would be huge already.
2) We already have a reputation with users and users would hopefully know that we'd be fair to them. We'd be a sort of union that kept the interest of both parties in mind.
3) They'd make more money.

 

Topics change their direction from time to time, this is very related so it goes in the same thread.

 

I did cover the legality really, I stated it quite clearly too. That still does not make it sane to quote Nintendo on piracy.

 

I care that my users are fully informed on what they're doing, that it's easy to download does not make it legal, sadly it seems many appear to make that connection.

 

Can't say it is, I thought downloading in Canada wasn't illegal because uploading was, and since uploading was illegal then no one would download. But I could be mistaken of course, I don't know Canadian copyright law since I only really care about the Danish one.

This might be a peculiar trait in NZ, but from my general understanding, and at least in Denmark, in order for something to do stolen the definition clearly is that it must be removed from a person without said persons consent, so copying it would not be stealing. It'd still be illegal though, just not stolen.