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Is Rom Hacking Illegal?

26
Posts
7
Years
Nah, rom hacking is 100% legal.
parody's are legal right( they are)? like all of those really REALLYREALLY
Cringy minecraft songs available on itunes? for money?
as long as you arent selling it, you are OK
 
26
Posts
7
Years
According to Nintendo, quite a lot of things related to even emulators can be illegal

Some direct quotes from Nintendo:
A Nintendo Emulators is a program designed to play games on a platform that it was not created for. A Nintendo emulator allows for Nintendo console based or arcade games to be played on unauthorized hardware. The video games are obtained by downloading illegally copied software, i.e. Nintendo ROMs, from Internet distributors. Nintendo ROMs then work with the Nintendo emulator to enable game play on unauthorized hardware such as a personal computer, a modified console, etc

There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.

Emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy. That's like asking why doesn't Nintendo legitimize piracy. It doesn't make any business sense. It's that simple and not open to debate.

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come.

Yes. Personal Websites and/or Internet Content Providers sites That link to Nintendo ROMs, Nintendo emulators and/or illegal copying devices can be held liable for copyright and trademark violations, regardless of whether the illegal software and/or devices are on their site or whether they are linking to the sites where the illegal items are found.

While there maybe a loophole to using hacks with patches such as .IPS and xdelta etc. Getting a ROM for the Hack to be patched in the first place is illegal. We're all doing something illegal here. But, I don't really care whether is legal or not.

if you are editing it, then that means that you have created a PARODY and that means that you are creating a alteration of the content in attempt to joke on or simulate the experience. for example, you cannot be arrested or be put into jail for creating a parody song like the ones WEIRD AL makes.
in my opinion, this rule also would apply to a parody of a game.
sure, the rom may have been obtained "illegally" according to nintendo, but as far as i am aware, if the copyright on the product is out of date and has not been renewed, EX POKEMON FIRE RED expired in like 2008 or something like that, making it open to the wonderful world of
FAIR USE!!!
- jackj106
 

MachoPony

Resident Brony
283
Posts
12
Years
except there's a reason #wtfu has been so popular these days, some companies (especially nintendo) will shut down anything related to their IPs that gain enough widespread notoriety even non profit. see pokemon prism, pokemon uranium and AM2R
 
971
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 21
  • Seen Nov 28, 2022
except there's a reason #wtfu has been so popular these days, some companies (especially nintendo) will shut down anything related to their IPs that gain enough widespread notoriety even non profit. see pokemon prism, pokemon uranium and AM2R

Pokémon Uranium is not a ROM hack and thus a completely different ball-game.
 
971
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 21
  • Seen Nov 28, 2022
the point still stands using Prism as an example. if something gets popular enough, nintendo is likely to shut it down these days.

I also forgot to mention that Uranium took and received plenty of donations.
Prism monetizef their trailer, which got a lot of views.

Anyway, I wrote the exact same two threads down and works here, too:

Nintendo don't shut down any old game. There are a variety of factors that come into play. Here are a few:
  • Are you making money off of your game? Are you taking donations? Offering exclusive content by paying? (This includes ad revenue from a website)
  • Is the game popular during a main or other major release? (Pokémon Prism so close to Sun Moon. It draws attention from those games and that is the last thing they want.)
  • How many official assets and resources does the game use of the official games?
  • Does the game have online connectivity?
These are some reasons for Nintendo to potentially take down a game. You want to avoid these as much as possible.

PS: These especially apply to fangames, but I'm sure a good chunk (if not everything) applies to hacks as well.
 
38
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 42
  • Iowa
  • Seen Sep 30, 2021
totally legal as long as you dont try to claim it as your own or try to make money off of it, that be my two cents on the matter.

you dont own the property, therefore you shouldnt be able to profit from it in any way.
 
3
Posts
9
Years
  • Age 35
  • Seen Sep 6, 2018
I don't make rom hacks, got awesome idea's but wouldn't know where to start at actually making a game lol, but from reading this thread am I understanding it right?, am I actually braking the law by distributing the fan games and rom hacks?, as I got almost the entire completed fan games and rom hacks on my PC I often get people come to me and I Google drive them a game lol.
 
9
Posts
7
Years
  • Age 29
  • Seen Jul 30, 2018
Where should I begin ...?

Downloading the ROM image sure is illegal, but ROM-Hacking itself is not illegal, since we simply manipulate the data privately, compare it to the original ROM and share a patch in various formats that can apply these changes to any copy of the original ROM.

What about "Rom-hacking 2.0"?

Rom-hacking 2.0 offers you to modify the C-code of the game and compile it to a completely different ROM, leading to more efficient development in terms of speed and space management. None of the projects - that decompile the standard ROM's of today and convert it to plain C-code - are not yet completed, but will soon.

This kind of "Rom-hacking" is juridically illegal, since you cannot provide patches in the usual way as you do not exactly use the original ROM as base.

All in all: With all the benefits Rom-Hacking 2.0 brings to us, it sure has it's downsides, with one of them being the juristic aspect.
 
6
Posts
6
Years
That's why I think, the rom hackers should move to game development someday, Rom hacking is cool, is funny, but it has their limits, if we as a community develop our own games, ofc we would make great games that could ever be better than pokemon
 
6
Posts
6
Years
  • Age 31
  • Seen Nov 3, 2017
Maybe, only share the RomHack is illegal ?

If you have the original game, your RomHack is just like a mod ?
 

Tak

10
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 34
  • Seen Dec 20, 2017
No. Just don't distribute the rom. Most hack authors use, or should use, patches.

That has been my understanding of it as well.
Also btw I'm the artist who drew the Kururu fanart in your avatar =o I don't mind you using it at all, just had to point that out. Huge coincidence.
 

Lunos

Random Uruguayan User
3,108
Posts
15
Years
Prism monetizef their trailer, which got a lot of views.

Nope, they didn't.

ON:
Is Rom Hacking Illegal?
As Esperance said, as long as you bought the actual game that you're modifying, you're good.
You have as a buyer, the right of doing whatever you please with the product that you bought.

Alternatively, I suppose that if the game itself was disassembled it's fair use as long as it doesn't contain any copyrighted material like the assets of the game itself. I'd like for someone who knows more about that topic to correct me if I'm wrong on that though.
 
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7
Posts
2
Years
  • Age 19
  • None
  • Seen Sep 23, 2021
People still think that ROM hacking is illegal. It is completely legal if you own the ROM and you have not downloaded and used any copyrighted stuff. I can't believe that there are still people who thinks that the homebrew games are also illegal. They could be at some point only if they are created using stuff from the original game. Otherwise, if they are original such as in the ROM Packs or PD ROMs website, they are completely legal as any other game which has not been copyrighted or it has copyrights as freeware. Also, I would suggest avoid downloading and playing any abandonware because these are copyrighted games where support is not responding for longer time period of time.
 
136
Posts
10
Years
  • Age 35
  • Seen Mar 28, 2024
According to Nintendo, quite a lot of things related to even emulators can be illegal

Note that Nintendo are being transparently self-serving when talking about the legality of emulation in general. Emulators themselves are completely legal, but Nintendo tell you they're illegal so you'll pay them for the ones they release as "Virtual Console" rather than seeking out freely-available ones.
 
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