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sundin13 on 02 April 2014
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Xen said:
sundin13 said:

Thats also not true...Downloading from the internet and playing a ROM is always illegal no matter the circumstances. Here is a short quote from Nintendo's legal page:

"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."

It basically says you can back up and archive your data but you cannot download and play ROMs from the internet

That doesn't really set a legal precedent considering you can't really prove the source of the ROM, plus the ease with which ROMs are backed up - at least from DS and SNES, where I actually backed some up. The CRC32 value of the ROMs is identical to the ones you'd find on the net.

The only way this works, of course, is when the ROM owner doesn't have the original copy - but honestly, who gives a shit with anything earlier than the DS?

If you are playing ROMs that you got online, you are doing it illegally. I am just stating the facts here.  You want to debate legality and facts well here they are. You are dead wrong. Playing ROMs is illegal in virtually all circumstances. Creating backups is just that. A backup. You aren't supposed to be playing the backup copy.

If you want to be an "its only illegal if you get caught" person, go right ahead but don't pretend that you were right...