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Helloplite on 20 February 2017
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vivster said:
Helloplite said:
Why are we listening to this dinosaur still? The ethical considerations are fairly simple actually when it comes to this:

Is it easy to acquire the original console/hardware and software, at a logical price for the consumer? YES/NO
Are the original developers still around? YES/NO
Does the software in question still get sold, digitally or physically? YES/NO
Are the original developers likely to receive any income from sales of said software in sale? YES/NO

If you answered NO to all (or at the very least, the last) of these, feel free to emulate. The law is often unreasonable, chaotic, or simply lacking merit.

Also, a bonus rule:

Do you own the original software/hardware? YES/NO

If you answered YES in the bonus question, feel free to emulate with no moral concerns.

You obviously didn't watch the video. None of it was about actual pirating. It's about Nintendo's blatant disregard of the copyright law by ignoring fair use yet refering to the same law when it's pestering content creators for their fair use.

Yes, I didn't watch it. I will and will amend my response accordingly, but I have a certain sort of distaste for Jimquisition, even at those few instances when I happen to agree with him. Fair use is not a simple legal concept, which is why many times people end in courts over the intepretation of the doctrine. In particular, article (1) is quite restrictive, and posting stuff (e.g. on YouTube) does not necessarily mean it is fair use (in other words, do not associate fair use with common use -- common use is not necessarily fair use). Article (3) also complicates things, essentially since to reproduce a videogame you need to use substantial amounts of assets/portions of the work (e.g. graphics + sound + depiction of gameplay). Finally for (4), if the product can be monetized Nintendo can still claim that it is not fair use, as long as it does not violate the First Amendment.

Fair use, for the most part, entails 'transformative' use. For most videogames, this is a very vague thing as we are not in agreement over what constitutes 'transformative' use of a video game. As someone who works in academia, I am fairly aware of fair use, as I come across it every time I have to do anything, from printing a chapter of a book for my students, to using copyright material as educational tools. Even the fact that I work in education does not make this a simple thing. This is not just simply 'copyright law' stuff.