Is Rom Hacking Illegal?

Help! I really want to make my own pokemon game but I am worried it is illegal. I don't deal with illegal stuff nor do I want to so if someone could answer this question that would be great! Is ROM hacking Illegal?

I'm not an expert in any sense of the word, but as I understand it, yes, ROM hacking as we do it on this forum is legal as it falls under fair use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality

There are a few important points to consider before ROM hacking though.

• It is not legal have a copy of a ROM file that you do not own a physical copy of -- this is sort of like the legality of music downloading.
• Fair use in reverse engineering is dependent on the previous point
• Distribution of ROM files still under copyright is illegal -- this is why we use patch files. Won't name any specifics, but some websites out there have been taken down because of this.
• You cannot attempt to make a profit or claim a hack as your own unique creation -- you didn't program the original ROM, someone else did.

Of course it could be argued that a hack is a derivative work, and in that case copyright would only apply if the work was obtained legally (see first point again).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work

So short answer: yes, just don't try and sell it or share the actual ROM.

Technically, yes, as obtaining a software copy of something you have in real life does not entitle you to another (at least how I understand it).

https://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#download_rom
This might be an extremely biased source, but yeah. They explain it well.

This is where fair use comes in. I don't know the specifics of fair use itself, so I'm not going to discuss that.

No. Just don't distribute the rom. Most hack authors use, or should use, patches.

ash0421 said:

Is Rom Hacking Illegal?

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Yeah, it is. That's why we do it, because we like to live our lives dangerously. ;)

ash0421 said:

Help! I really want to make my own pokemon game but I am worried it is illegal. I don't deal with illegal stuff nor do I want to so if someone could answer this question that would be great! Is ROM hacking Illegal?

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This is all for the US.

Having a backup of a game that you own is legal, as Lostelle said, but modifying that ROM in anyway is not. For a non-ROMHacking example, you may back up your... we'll go with Sims 3. You can back up your Sims 3 (that you physically own), and as long as that backup is an exact copy then you're in the clear. That's perfectly legal. What is illegal is modifying that backup in any way (you might want to remove the DRM on it, for example. That's illegal.) The law on that is supposed to act as a deterrent for deleting DRM (as far as I know, that was its intent), but it technically catches ROMHackers too, since we're modifying backup ROMs to create our hacks.

But, seriously. You break laws every single day; laws that are on the books but never enforced. ROMHacking falls into that category of illegal: something you will never ever get prosecuted for unless you intentionally try to sell your work. Even distributing ROMs (which is software piracy), while more severe than modifying backups, will probably never get you into trouble. Keep in mind though, the PokeCommunity itself prohibits ROM sharing, which is why we distribute our work in patch form. A patch only contains the changes made to the ROM, so it's technically only the hacker's work.

Yes, sir!!! Join us man!! Be an outlaw!! Hahaha!

(Though there's a patch loophole and stuff, so technically it may not be illegal).

Well not really. I mean if you make a patch and create a download link with the patch such as Media Fire, that would be legal. However, if you're thinking about selling roms that was hack by you or someone else, that would be illegal and could get yourself into deep trouble with the police. Also, it brings bad society to the world.

Deokishisu said:

This is all for the US.

Having a backup of a game that you own is legal, as Lostelle said, but modifying that ROM in anyway is not. For a non-ROMHacking example, you may back up your... we'll go with Sims 3. You can back up your Sims 3 (that you physically own), and as long as that backup is an exact copy then you're in the clear. That's perfectly legal. What is illegal is modifying that backup in any way (you might want to remove the DRM on it, for example. That's illegal.) The law on that is supposed to act as a deterrent for deleting DRM (as far as I know, that was its intent), but it technically catches ROMHackers too, since we're modifying backup ROMs to create our hacks.

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If I understand it correctly, you're allowed to modify it for personal use as long as you don't break copy protection. That might not be an "on the books" exception though and is just generally agreed upon.

I suppose it is possible to restrict that in an EULA but 1) EULAs won't necessarily hold up in court and 2) do GBA games even have an EULA? If I haven't agreed to something, it's a bit difficult to enforce.

You can probably get away with it, so that's about it as far as the law was concerned. You obviously wouldn't hold it correct to abide by all laws of all places, though, or even that they should be such, so why this should be significant may be uncertain. Obviously, patches are meant for ROMs, so if that were in any sense held to be legally decisive, then the law in this realm would have generally been a bit of a joke anyway.

No that's just nonsense people made up on old ROM sites for some reason.

Don't think Nintendo really care about people modding products that they don't even produce anymore. If people were to make money off of hacking then it might become slightly different.

So if you make a hack should you keep all the gamefreak/nintendo logos and just put something like "Gamefreak + (your name)"?

Marugi said:

So if you make a hack should you keep all the gamefreak/nintendo logos and just put something like "Gamefreak + (your name)"?

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It reeeeeaaaaally doesn't matter. No one's hack will ever be big enough to draw attention from the big guns, just don't try to profit off of your hack.

ROM hacking is perfectly legal, if you own the ROM. It's completely allowed to make copies and modify those copies. The copy is not bound by the same laws as the original (which you are not allowed to modify).

That said, everything pertaining to sharing your ROM is completely illegal. If you have questions, please read over here https://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp

Nintendo claims to take piracy and sharing very seriously, with potential to shut down your website. They probably won't even bother...lol.

As others have said, Rom hacking is illegal in parts of the world, but most big companies like Nintendo and gamefreak don't really care enough to take it to court. It's just not worth the time and expense. And if your moral compass strictly wants to steer you away from breaking any law think of it this way. You aren't making any money from it (or shouldn't be) and you are improving the longevity of a game you love for your own personal enjoyment. There are certain games in the franchise that I would never play if I couldn't mod them.

This really goes back to the age-old modding discussion that applies to a lot of games. To me, as long as you aren't making money from it, there is no harm to it. Modding provides many benefits to games such as fixing broken mechanics, improving graphics and adding features that the game devs didn't have time to implement themselves.

FBI said:

ROM hacking is perfectly legal, if you own the ROM. It's completely allowed to make copies and modify those copies. The copy is not bound by the same laws as the original (which you are not allowed to modify).

That said, everything pertaining to sharing your ROM is completely illegal. If you have questions, please read over here
Nintendo claims to take piracy and sharing very seriously, with potential to shut down your website. They probably won't even bother...lol.

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How will you know if you own the ROM?
Ps. I removed the link because I'm still not allowed to

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.

You should be fine as long as you do not monetize (Make money) off of Nintendo copyrighted characters (Like pokemon).