You looked it up from an incorrect source then. Downloading roms is NOT legal and never has been. Roms of commercial games are NOT legal unless you made them yourself for your own purposes (i.e backup), and this has never been any different. There has NEVER been a law stating that they are legal for 24 hours They are 100% completely and totally illegal from the second you download them, no matter how long you keep them or whether or not you own the original game. All of what you are saying is bullshit invented by romsites to make their visitors think what they are doing is legal, IT IS NOT.
FALSE. It is cheaper to go after the suppliers than everyone who downloads them. Plus, knowing who has downloaded from a site such as romulation requires access to the servers, which they dont have. it is NOT legal to download roms.
Whats wrong with hackers? If there were no hackers... dumpers... whatever you call them, we wouldn't even create this site, nor even this thread!
Flashcarts would be useless if there were no homebrew/Play-Yan and roms floating over the internet Post Merge: [time]1260874202[/time] Flashcarts are NOT illegal cus it would be just a piece of plastic if you don't do anything with it (play roms, playyan,) If you put in homebrew on the sd card. still not illegal. If you put in ROMS on the SD card, the only thing illegal are the ROMs inside them
False, it is legal. I asked the cops. But only as backups. Which I have said. I know all about legal matters like these.
Where is your evidence? I believe that it is from the wrong source. When I posted my looked up information is was false.
really simple. roms or any other type of copyrighted material that you download off of the internet or get from a friend as a backed up copy is illegal. it is copyright infringement. ROMs themselves are not illegal per se. This section gives a general discussion of the legal status of ROMs as regards the various uses to which they may be put, though this should not be construed as legal advice. Private ownership In some countries, it is legal for an individual to personally make backup copies of a game they own. Individuals may make backup copies for various reasons, perhaps as insurance against losing the game or as redundancy in the event that the original game's medium becomes unreadable. See the section on ROMs and Preservation. However, in the U.S. it has been illegal since 1983 for a user to create their own backups of video game ROMs onto other cartridges. This was decided in the court case of Atari v. JS&A. JS&A manufactured a "game backup" device that allowed users to dump their Atari ROMs onto a blank cartridge. JS&A argued that the archival rule allowed for this. The court disagreed, noting that ROM media was not subject to the same volatility as magnetic media (for which the law was created). Thus, not being so relatively vulnerable, ROMs were not applicable under section 17 USC 117. Some games companies, such as Nintendo, print warnings inside their game manuals that they do not allow users to make backup or archival copies. Whether or not these warnings in this specific form can be considered valid contracts is legally questionable. For an overview of relevant issues, see user agreement (EULA), shrink wrap contract, clickwrap, Fair Use, Fair Dealing and DMCA. Official licenses It is, of course, legal to purchase a ROM image which has been licensed to you by the rights holder. For example, Atari once made a number of their original arcade games available in ROM format which is compatible with the MAME emulator through the online ROM retailer Star ROMs. Nintendo provides a service on their 7th generation console, the Wii, that allows players to purchase old games from various systems, such as the NES, which will download a ROM image and emulator upon purchase . This is similar to the Playstation Store re-releases of games for the original Playstation for the Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable, and the Xbox Live Arcade's re-release of many old video games such as the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360. The vast majority of computer and video games from the history of such games are no longer manufactured. As such, the copyright holders of some games have offered free licenses to those games, often on the condition that they be used for non-commercial purposes only. For example, fourteen of the games emulated in MAME, including Gridlee and Robby Roto, have been made available under such licenses and are distributed by the MAME project. Unlicensed ROMs While some games which no longer make any profit fit into the category above, the vast majority are no longer available in any form. The legality of obtaining such games varies from country to country. Some countries have special exceptions in copyright laws or case law which permit (or discourage less) copying when an item is not available for legal purchase or when the copying is for non-commercial or research purposes, while other countries may make such practises firmly illegal. There is often a distinction drawn between distribution and downloading, with distribution being seen as the greater offence. Commercial distribution of copyrighted games without the consent of the copyright holder is generally illegal in almost all countries, with those who take part in such activities being liable for both criminal and civil penalties. Online auction sites such as eBay have sometimes been used by sellers to sell unauthorised copies of games which are advertised as legitimate copies. Such sellers, in addition to violating copyright laws, may also be prosecuted for fraud or false advertising. Abandonware It is often the case that games still under copyright protection are no longer sold or marketed by their copyright holders. This may be due to the perceived lack of demand or for other reasons. Some hobbyists engaged in ROM trading claim that such games should be deemed abandoned by their respective copyright holders so that the games, classed as abandonware, can be freely traded. However, the copyright laws of most countries, including all signatories of the Berne Convention, grant copyright holders the exclusive right to distribute, or not distribute, a work until such time as the copyright expires under law or is granted to the public domain by the copyright holder. Legal enforcement There have been few convictions and lawsuits related to ROM trading. Criminal convictions tend to be related to high-profile warez groups which trade combinations of recent films and computer games. In contrast, the ROM scene tends to concentrate mostly on older games. Given the lack of continuing profit from most older games, the grievances of games companies rarely exceed sending a cease and desist letter which demands that the recipient stop distributing the copyrighted works in question. and like it has been said before Flash carts are legal because they are "meant" to be used for things like homebrew apps and things of that nature. the reason you are able to put roms on them is because just in case some one makes a homebrew rom they would have to make it playable with the NDS/I. so that is why they are able to play NDS/I roms and why they are legal
In the United States, downloading of copyrighted material, even if you own it or even if you aren't making a profit off of it, is illegal. It's part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that Bill Clinton signed. Many other countries have signed similar treaties and acts dealing with international copyright laws.
In Australia, flashcarts can only be sold in the city, where kids import flashcarts from China and make their profit here. You cannot find them in phone stores etc. Although SD cards are legal.
Duh.... SD cards are legal everywhere. Flashcarts are legal, too. It's just what's the files inside the SD card. If they are Nintendo DS ROMs, it will be illegal. But if it were Nintendo DS homebrew... You'd be okay.
Tell us where you live. I want to know in which country downloading Roms is legal (Which I doubt.Highly)
Any place that is remote/in the middle of the sea. (Island) Post Merge: [time]1261150367[/time] But even although dl rom there legal cuz it not regulated, you dont have electricity to power your computer...
Nah, I don't. I just live in Beijing, the Chinese aren't really able to keep order of these illegal ROMS floating about... Post Merge: [time]1262093513[/time] See, I said it was Illegal ROMS, not Illegal Flashcarts!
I think flashcarts are legal because the makers (and Nintendo) think that we are going to use them for Homebrew (which is legal) But we are smarter than that. (Thank you, release groups and hackers, we salute you!)
