Google shouldn't be sued for having emulators. Nintendo should be reprimanded for asking $8 for a SNES game.

I agree that something should be done but I have no real  idea what to do.  For me removing the stuff would be good but how to convince them to do it?


Another thing that bothers me is  Why the hell does wikipedia have EMULATION as part of most consoles? For me this has nothing at all to do with information about a console.  I mean its biased  they seem to want people to play illegal copies of games   otherwhise they would also add  CASE MODDING to the wiki  but this clearly is not the case.  So why is emulation part of a consoles wiki  but case modding is not?

And why sue Google over this? They didn't make the emulator. Sue that guy in his garage if you have to.

...not that i think anyone should be sued over emulation, but this would just be a case of folloing the money and not the cause.

It isn't.  That's why Sony lost when they sued the creators of Bleem!

Although the lawsuits were draining enough that said creators went out of buisness...

it more or less established that emulators are 100% legal.

No...Those emulators use custom code...Nintendo owns the right to the console, not the Moss 6502 processor that was used in the system.

The only reason Apple blocks emulators is so that they can control exactly what code runs on their platform. Emulators run any code put into them.

as vgchartz's resident anti-piracy asshole i'd just like to say ... you're right.  emulators aren't illegal and i agree that dead gens should eventually be open to the public.  what are patents good for?  17 years?  why games, music, and movies IP rights last longer than innovation in science and technology is a complete mystery to me.

Okay so most are saying emulators are legal. I will look further into it but you gotta be fucking kidding yourself if you think people are downloading these emulators to play just custom made games. I beleive most people are downloading these to play the classics.

"Patents last for about 20 years, depending upon the jurisdiction. Many once-lucrative patents covering base computing technologies such as side-scrolling or use of interchangeable ROM cartridges have lapsed into the public domain. Nonetheless, 20 years is a long time in game development, and some technology or algorithm developed 5 years ago for which patents were granted only last year may remain valid and useable for the next 10 to 15 years. In lean times or for an assignee developer on the acquisition trail, enforceable patents that are infringed present significant opportunities. "

http://wiki.igda.org/IP_Rights_SIG/Overview_of_IP_in_Video_Games

So the patents for video games last 20 years.  Guess what there are plenty of GBA and other more recent emulators on the market.  The GBA is not 20 years old and I am sure plenty of people are playing pirated GBA games with the emulators.  Sure they might allow legal use but they sure as hell encourage illegal use.

What do you think most users use an emulator for?  Legal purposes... yea right

I'm trying to make a drug analogy but it really isn't working.  It is almost like giving someone a legal bag of weed but then telling them by using any smoking device would be illegal.  So you have something legal but the main way to use it is illegal.

Actually, that's legal too.

Bleem! who won their case was specifically marketed as an emulator that allows you to play PS1 games on your dreamcast or computer.  They even used direct images from Sony created exclsuives like Metal Gear Solid and Tekken

The above was ruled totally legal. 

The only thing in emulation that's actually illegal is downloading a Rom from the internet.