My Opinion:
The emulation of games of old systems such as nintendo, sega master system, atari, and old
arcade games should be made legal because they are no longer available for purchase in the
main game market. Also, for the most part, games are no longer being made for these
systems, so the original companies are no longer profiting from them.
However, I am unclear whether It should be legal to emulate the SNES and Genesis systems,
because games are still available at local stores, and a FEW games a year are still being
made
The emulation of systems such as Nintendo 64 and Playstation should not be legal because
titles for those systems are still being produced. However, users that own the original
game carts should be able to have backed up ROM images. Under U.S. Copyright Law, they
have the right to have a ROM image for backup purposes
(When I say emulation, I mean using ROMs that you do not own the original to)
Update: I've come to the conclusion that I think that it would benefit
both the emulation and game software company to reach a solution that I saw proposed by
someone from the IDSA (I think that's who it was). This would be a win/win
situation, and I think this would be the BEST solution..don't know why I never thought of
it before.
The solution would be the availability to purchase an emulator/rom CD set from the
Manufacturer (sega, nintendo, etc.), for...say $50 or so.. This would give you the
right to play a huge amount of "outdated" games, that are hard to find...etc..
But the manufacturer would still benefit, and not "have their software
stolen"...since they receive $50
There are not currently many articles on emulaion piracy, but here is what I have
found:
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Last Updated 3 Feb. 1999
All information believed to be accurate, but not guaranteed
© 1998, 1999, Brian A. Cole. All Rights Reserved.
brian.cole@m.cc.utah.edu