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Resolved: Probably a dumb question

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  • Age 23
  • Seen Mar 24, 2024
I'm conflicted on this one. Is it legal to download ROMs if I don't own a physical copy of the game?
 

Ti-65 Fukunotsuki

Bug Collector
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1
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Yes, it is illegal. But you won't be visited by the nintendo authorities (or any kind of authority for that matter) anytime soon. In my opinion, it's a gray area, if it's an old game they no longer profit over, why bring you to court over it? At the same time it is their IP, so they have the right to do that. Honestly, if you're worried about getting in trouble with the law there is nothing for you to worry about.
 
12,856
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  • Age 23
  • Seen yesterday
Nintendo considers any form of emulation illegal.

Can't imagine anybody has ever gotten in trouble for ROMS, so it comes down to personal morals. Torrenting and redistributing could get you into trouble with the law depending on the place you live.
 
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  • Age 38
  • Seen May 30, 2023
I'm conflicted on this one. Is it legal to download ROMs if I don't own a physical copy of the game?

To be honest, people who hold onto copyright for 20+ years and have no intention of supporting it, etc... are greedy little monsters. I could go on and on, but A: they don't support it anymore, B: they don't sell it C: they don't care even if you do own a physical copy

Given those 3 points, its best to treat nintendo like they treat their fans, which is to say, do what annoys them because they are constantly on their high horse. No one needs a 20Y+ copyright license, for anything electronic. This usually just enables the worst behavior on their end anyways, such as data mining, spying, built in malware basically and especially data collection so they can sell it for more money than the value of the physical copy itself.

So yeah, copyright infringement is meh, but as long as you aren't redistributaing for a price, I see zero reason this should be illegal given the above.

They will hold onto their rights for 70+ the life of the original author. Talk about a ponsi scheme.

However if you want to make safe, if you do download, don't share with anyone anything except where you found it.

That is probably the safest way to do this.
 

Venia Silente

Inspectious. Good for napping.
1,225
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15
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To be fair the games are archived across pretty much the entirely of the internet — Pokémon as a brand concept is that famous. Even the Internet Archive has copies of the ROMs. So you won't reallistically run into problem just because downloading them, it's only mostly going to be a problem if you do *more* than that.

In general yeah while it can be said it's illegal 1.- it depends on jurisdiction 2.- no one has said that such law is legit / fair, it's basically as illegal as saying watering your own lawn on Fridays specifically is illegal (yes, there are laws like that). Given what Nintendon't do for their consumers, and the way they treat them overall (suing a Pokémon-themed birthday party, or demanding a fraction of a person's income for perpetuity, for example), one can fairly say that an unfair law can freely be fought. Nintendo is not your friend, it's a corporation — and arguably one culturally tied to the Yakuza influence.
 
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