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CladInShadows on 01 May 2017
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Bandorr said:
Leadified said:

The problem with that analogy is you're not committing a crime using an emulator, the crime is from software piracy. It would be akin to buying a gun legally but obtaining the ammunition from an illegal source. Or more simply, it's like buying a PC but then illegally downloading all of your games (or programs).

I consider it closer to buying a gun legally.. but then not caring what happens to it afterwards. The emulators are created legally, but could be used when people download illegal ROMs.

I'm not actually sure what effort emulator writers could put in though to try and curb piracy.  Scan for the game in the drive? Game companies would have to pitch in and offer databases of valid serial numbers for emulators to scan or have one entered and checked.

Perhaps any ROMs not created on that computer can't be used?

I can't completely blame emulator writers for not trying to curb piracy, but I also can't say they are in the clear either.

Considering companies' stance on emulation, I doubt we would get much cooperation from them.  Usually they employ more of a "cease and desist" kind of solution to these things.  

Also, and I don't know if this has changed much over the years, but performance was often slower if the game was read directly from the disc.  So if some kind of copy protection were to be used, it would be nice if the game could still be run from an ISO, but would check for the existence of a disc.