Do YOU think Emulation is the same as Piracy ?

Does Emulation = Piracy ?

  • Total voters
    357
Beechos said:
Not piracy, but everyone i know who uses emulators dont own or nor have dumped 99.9% of the games they use the emulators for.
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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.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Of course it isn't.

If I buy a game I can do whatever I please with it, since it's mine. If I decide to dump it and run it on an emulator that provides a better experience than even the current official hardware, like 4K and 60fps, then I would be stupid for not doing so.
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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.
 
Hero_Select said:
It's like the whole point just went way over your head lmao
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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.
 
Gambit2483 said:
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.
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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.
 
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.
 
Older games that are hard to find or no longer for sale? I couldn't give a shit.
Playing TotK a week early and bragging about it? I'll smile if someone shows up to your house and takes your hands.
 
phant0m said:
And a side note, you've got some real whiplash going on with saying "don't worry, I buy it all" and then 2 sentences later blasting them "ripoff with poor quality products". Why are you so fucking desperate to play it then?
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Nostalgia. The only reason they're still in business.
 
The Cockatrice said:
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.
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Piracy is not emulation.

I only emulate the games I already own for convenience and preservation.
 
Plies said:
Piracy is not emulation.

I only emulate the games I already own for convenience and preservation.
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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.
 
Edder1 said:
And you keep doubling down on silly replies. Like I already said, you can commit plenty of crime with knife without having to be brandishing it in public as in your example. Like dude, knifes are used for murder quite often worldwide, which proves they can be used for illegal means.
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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.
Edder1 said:
Knifes have no restrictions, as don't many other items that can be used as weapon. This is a winless argument.
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And your knife analogy was dumb because knives still have restrictions, even if your not using it as a weapon.
Edder1 said:
It's an analogy, not a direct 1:1 comparison to emulation, lol. It's just to prove that many things that are perfectly legal can also be used for illegal means, but you brain seems to unable to comprehend that, lol.
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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.
 
Felessan said:
Stealing leased car is still a theft
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???
Clear said:
That slogan unfortunately makes no sense.

You don't "own" your passwords and credentials either but I'm pretty sure if someone were to duplicate and spread them across the internet you wouldn't be happy.

It shouldn't be necessary to explain the concept of intellectual property in the digital age, but here we are. Again.
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Naz93 said:
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.
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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.
 
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The Cockatrice said:
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.
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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.
 
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MayauMiao said:
If emulation is piracy, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and any game devs using emulation tech is piracy.

So I say no.
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adamsapple 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 said:
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.
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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.
 
bitbydeath said:
Piracy just means to make a copy, which is what happens. It copies it into a ROM file.
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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.
 
adamsapple said:
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.
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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!
 
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The Cockatrice said:
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.
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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
 
adamsapple said:
Do YOU think Emulation is the same as Piracy ?
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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.
 
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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.
 
I'm not too worried about it. These companies don't mind using every scummy tactic to take every penny possible from the consumer, they are making money hand over fist.
 
Why only Nintendo cries about emulation this much?

Sony and MS dosent seen to botter with emulation.
 
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Lokaum D+ said:
Why only Nintendo cries about emulation this much?

Sony and MS dosent seen to botter with emulation.
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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.
 
bitbydeath said:
the unauthorized use or reproduction of another's work.

Meaning if you didn't make it and you copy it then that's piracy.
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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.
 
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Fun fact, Nintendo themselves have used emulation for years. There aren't any tiny Sega Genesis chips or Gameboy Advance chips, or NES /SNES chips in that that thar Switch!
 
Lokaum D+ said:
Why only Nintendo cries about emulation this much?

Sony and MS dosent seen to botter with emulation.
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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.
 
The Cockatrice said:
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.
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Yes it is piracy. But only the downloading roms illegally part. The using emulators part is not piracy.
 
I would be interested in a poll where you ask,:

1. Have you dumped your own games to play them emulated on another system
2. Downloaded a Rom from the internet of a game you own
3. Downloaded a Rom from a game i have previously owned but sold
4. Arrrrrrrrrrrr
 
If it's retro, no.
If its current gen like it was with switch then yes if you dont own the game already
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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