Do YOU think Emulation is the same as Piracy ?
- Thread starter adamsapple
- Start date
Gambit2483
Member
Everyone knows what the deal is. The whole "it's just a way to backup the ganes you already own" excuse is just a way for people to justify the ROMs existence, despite the fact that 95% of the people using these ROMs don't own them and never plan to.
Pirates know who they are and what they are doing and are (usually) the first to cry when Nintendo cracks down on the latest Switch emulators/ROM sites.
Hero_Select
Member
It's like the whole point just went way over your head lmao
Dorfdad
Gold Member
I agree but the second you upload it to a site for distribution or copy it and give it to a friend that is piracy. I have bought so many systems over the years and the carts or discs become defective requiring me to have to re purchase a game because they used cheap parts. Emulation backing up your own games and running an an emulator shouldn't be considered illegal.
However that said 90% of the emulation out there is from people never buying a game and downloading illegal copies so I understand the concern from the platform holders.
If there was only a way to legally rip your games and have it activate or tie it to your emulator.
You have no point. The only point you have is "emulation bad" when emulation is legal in court of law. Something being used mainly for illegal purposes doesn't make that thing illegal, it's common sense for anyone with half a brain.
UltimaKilo
Gold Member
I don't think OP understands what emulation means.
Hero_Select
Member
I was trying to be generous and say 80% as a base but it is far more realistic to say 95%
And the thing is. Fine. Pirate a game, I really don't care but then don't try to also take some moral high ground because "Well technically" or even worst still - because you have a hate boner for a company after they rightfully go after rom sites.
Play the game for free, if the rom site get taken down don't complain about it - go find another one, there's 389439348 of them.
The Cockatrice
I'm retarded?
Both yes and no are correct. Emulation was and is still being used to pirate and play games that have not been bought. On the other hand its also preserving games among other benefits because of bs corporations. This is pretty much the same debate as do guns kill people or do people kill people? Both are true.
Anthony Soprano
Member
Nostalgia. The only reason they're still in business.
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Piracy is not emulation.
I only emulate the games I already own for convenience and preservation.
The Cockatrice
I'm retarded?
You MAY do that, however there are a lot of people who use emulators to play pirated copies of games, more common, Nintendo ones. I have a friend who has never bought a Nintendo game in his life and has played most of them through emulation. That is piracy.
Naz93
Neo Member
First.. Why do you keep bringing up murder and hurting people? The discussion has moved past that and you keep circling the conversation back. I said you're gun analogy was dumb because in a civilized society you still need a gun license too own one legally.
And your knife analogy was dumb because knives still have restrictions, even if your not using it as a weapon.
I understand analogies. Saying 'it's just an analogy' when yours collapses isn't clever; it's proof you can't think past surface-level comparisons. I keep mentioning licenses and restrictions because emulators ignore both with no mechanism to prevent piracy.
Lokaum D+
Member
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
You've never cared about ANYTHING
Let me make it clearer to you as you seem not to understand basic things. The knife analogy is there to make you understand that something that is legal in general terms can also be used for illegal means. Your example of knife regulations being there is not a strong argument like you think it is. One can easily do illegal things with a knife without publicly brandishing one. Even mentally ill people have easy access to knives. You keep bringing up this nonsense about public regulation of knives to make your argument valid or something, but ignore how any Tom, Dick and Harry can take a knife and use it to do harm.
Emulation being bad or having to be banned because people use it for piracy is a ridiculous argument and has no basis legally or otherwise. Only Nintendo brain rot keep coming up with such silly proposals.
Last edited:
Lokaum D+
Member
As someone that lives in a third world country i ll say that, 90% of the ppl that pirates Nintendo here on Brazil are not using emulators since PC are expensives and emulation does require some configuration that most ppl dont wanna deal with.
Dont know how It is on other countries but here, moded consoles are kings.
Last edited:
bitbydeath
Member
adamsapple
botched the question I think, he probably meant dumping games.Asking about emulation is like asking if it's illegal to play a stolen movie and ignoring the act of the movie first needing to be stolen.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
No, emulation being piracy is the exact talking points many have brought up before, including Nintendo.
Everyone knows using dumped roms without owning the game is illegal.
bitbydeath
Member
You won't reach step 2 without going through step 1.
Step 1 - Dumping / Piracy
Step 2 - Emulation
Dumping would be the more relevant question here.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Dumping owned games is not piracy tho, that's an invalid correlation.
bitbydeath
Member
Piracy just means to make a copy, which is what happens. It copies it into a ROM file.
bitbydeath
Member
Personally I think all games should be made available for free/Abandonware after a period of time (20/30 years).
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Unauthorized distribution.
Making a copy of something you own for your own personal usage shouldn't come under piracy. If you then distribute it to others, that's piracy.
bitbydeath
Member
Maybe so but the definition lists it as:
the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.
Meaning if you didn't make it and you copy it then that's piracy.
Not saying I agree with it, as I come from a time where recording songs off the radio and taping movies off the TV was a common everyday occurrence.
Is that piracy? Fuck em!
Last edited:
Gambit2483
Member
It's crazy when you think about it. There's a large sect of people* out there whining, and crying, calling Nintendo anti-consumer and "Greedy" because Nintendo's making it harder for them to STEAL from them....absolutely insane.
*I'm refering to the legitimate pirates like your friend
yurinka
Member
It depends, regarding the emulators themselves:
If it uses copyrighted code (from bios/OS) it's piracy. If not isn't.
Regarding the game ROMs/ISOs, for me:
To play games that you didn't buy and nowadays can be bought in stores even if recently discontinued, yes: it's piracy and morally wrong.
For very old discontinued games not available in stores that got 'liberated' by their creators, or modern games that you bought no, isn't piracy and morally ok.
For very old discontinued games not available in stores that weren't 'liberated' by their creators and that you don't own, it's piracy until their copyright/patent/whatever ends (50 years after release?) but morally ok.
Last edited:
Pimpbaa
Member
If we had a virtual console like service available on all platforms, then there would be no excuse to pirate. Now it's either hope whatever game you like show up on a compilation or come to Nintendo's shitty subscription service (if it's a genesis game you have to pay even more!). Also emulators often offer better video output than official shit.
baphomet
Member
Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
vaibhavpisal
Member
You could be running pirated roms on emulator.
AFAIK it doesn't care if copy is legit or not.
AFAIK it doesn't care if copy is legit or not.
kevboard
Member
usually their systems aren't as easy to emulate and their pirated copies are played on modded systems more than on emulators... however, that's probably true for the Switch as well, as every single gen1 Switch can be softmodded without issue.
MayauMiao
Member
Because there is no PS5 emulator that fully runs PS5 games at the moment.
MS, well Xbox is dead anyway so they don't care.
SamuraiEdge
Member
Love emulation.
Love roms.
Love classical game enhancements.
Love emulation community.
Love gaming.
Simple as.
Love roms.
Love classical game enhancements.
Love emulation community.
Love gaming.
Simple as.
ReBurn
Gold Member
It really depends on where you are in the world, what the work is, and what you do with that reproduction.
In the US you can make a copy of a computer program you own regardless of whether the one who created it approves. You re not allowed to distribute it and if you no longer own the original you're supposed to destroy the copy.
Last edited:
Sojiro
Member
Biggest reason are the emulators that were targeting a console that had games that were still actively being sold on the market. You can believe Sony or MS would do the same thing if their current Gen systems were somehow able to be emulated. Sony did take take bleeem! to court ages ago over emulation, and while they lost the case they financially ruined that company and still got the end result they wanted.
nkarafo
Member
Yes it is piracy. But only the downloading roms illegally part. The using emulators part is not piracy.
xrnzaaas
Member
Not an easy 'yes or no' answer. Emulating old systems with no option to buy the hardware or the games should be allowed.
Emulating current or recent platforms which are still available and have digital stores is piracy in my book (not counting the official emulators used by Sony, MS and Nintendo, ofc).
There's always the argument that you can emulate without pirating as long as you have bought the copy... but who's going to verify that? An emulator exists for everyone, not only for those who want to do it legit.
Emulating current or recent platforms which are still available and have digital stores is piracy in my book (not counting the official emulators used by Sony, MS and Nintendo, ofc).
There's always the argument that you can emulate without pirating as long as you have bought the copy... but who's going to verify that? An emulator exists for everyone, not only for those who want to do it legit.
Last edited:
Hudo
Member
What? No. An Emulator is just a tool. You can write your own software and use an emulator to run it. It's like saying using an OS (e.g. Windows) is the same as piracy. Can you run downloaded backups of software on an emulator? Sure. Obtaining those backups is the main issue. Not the usage of an emulator.
Btw: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo use emulators as well.
Btw: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo use emulators as well.
Radical_3d
Member
No, but even if it were it's better than the alternative of letting the legacy of games to irresponsible companies like Nintendo or Ubisoft.
Edit and disclaimer: the author of this post don't think that any 2006+ Ubisoft game should be preserved.
Edit and disclaimer: the author of this post don't think that any 2006+ Ubisoft game should be preserved.
Last edited: