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Question: Something's Confusing Me

Skara

THIS. IS. SEMPITERNAL.
    • 350
    Posts
    16
    Years
    In the rom hack threads, I always see IPS patches instead of roms. It's been bothering me for a while. So I have to ask, why is it that we can't post our rom hacks as rom files, but hacking roms, editing them, distributing tools to edit them and advertising your rom hacks is fine?
     
    Well as far as i know it's not illegal to have rom files if you have bought the game. So by editing the game and then uploading the edits your not breaking any laws because all your doing is editing something you already own. Posting roms however would be illegal because there's a high chance the person didn't buy the game.

    But I think there was like a legal battle or something a while ago about roms so I'm not sure if that information is outdated or not.
     
    Still. I find it funny how this site isn't above public talk about hacking roms you clearly downloaded, but linking other people to these roms you illegally downloaded and publicly hacked is somehow not allowed.
     
    That's just how it goes. .IPS patches are the edited game files, and not exactly the ROM itself. Linking to something that is fan made, and isn't the original game that Nintendo put on the shelves is essentially more accepting by Nintendo / Gamefreak / etc, then if we were to link to / provide their actual, legally sold Pokemon game files that you'd buy from a store.

    You're allowed to get the ROMs from Google searches, and that's up to you if you want to take that risk, but we don't want to provide them here, because that, Gamefreak is not okay with. D;
     
    The community can't be held liable, is the reason. Technically, ROMS hacks & thier distribution are illegal, and if Nintendo wanted too, they could shut it all down like what they did with Pokebeach last fall in the B/W fiasco. A Cease and Desist order wouldn't go over well here, and it would be a nightmare for the staff to deal with.
     
    No. ROMs and their distribution are illegal. The hacks and IPS patches simply contain records of what was changed. This is not illegal, and it's why discussion/etc is still allowed here. ROMs themselves are not legal to own, whereas IPS files and things are just discussion/records of changes.
     
    Vrai said:
    No. ROMs and their distribution are illegal. The hacks and IPS patches simply contain records of what was changed. This is not illegal, and it's why discussion/etc is still allowed here. ROMs themselves are not legal to own, whereas IPS files and things are just discussion/records of changes.
    Click to expand...

    That's far too great of a legal grey area to just dismiss off hand.

    I could, theoretically, make an IPS patch that contains nothing but content from other Pokémon / Nintendo games added into a base ROM. By some combination of technicalities, or probably just a really simple law up-front that would still class as being illegal.

    But the important part, and what it all boils down too, is that they give far less of a **** about people distributing content via patches than straight-up full ROMs.
     
    Hears how it really is: ROMs are copies of commercial games and are always illegal. Now since we can't stop you from obtaining these illegal files, we can and will not let you post them here.

    Now with that in mind, IPS and various patches, tools, and so on are not copies of commercial products in and of themselves.. they are the work of the author. Thus we allow those authors to post THEIR work should they so desire.

    These changes still may use protected code, be a derivative work or not. The authors/users are responsible for their own files. The community doesn't solicit them nor approve/disprove them. Using these files is up to each person who may download them. We neither warrant nor support them at all.

    As for most tools, if its open source, it can be posted and/or linked to. Also a link to commercial, shareware, donationware tools (TOOLS only) is allowed as long as it is a generic link to the maker's page.
     
    Interesting... so what about games like, for instance, Rijon Adventures or Light Platinum? they're not just edits, they're completely new game built on a different game. Since those games (among others) have absolutely no trace of the games they originally were, why can't their roms be linked to on here?
     
    Because they still use the underlying code, graphics and sound that are property of Nintendo and Game Freak. Unless, you would like to tell me these games have been completely reprogrammed and don't contain a single trace of the same game engine that the real GBA Pokémon games use, nor do they share any of the menu, character and Pokémon graphics and that they have completely original music and sound effects composed for the game*.

    Besides which, nobody wants to try debating semantics as to which ROMs are "clean" to distribute and which aren't.


    *At this point it wouldn't be a ROM hack anyway, just a homebrew GBA game
     
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