Emulation-A sin

[Nikolas222]

Emulation, the act of a computer program acting as a native system to a piece of software, requires ROMS to play.

In other words, if i wanted to play XBOX on my laptop, I would need an emulator .exe file and a disc's .iso file.

The law says it is legal to back up one copy of the ROM. It also says it is illigal to download it off the internet.

I wanted to play the Super Mario Land on my Palm but since i cant buy the hardware to back up the cartridge because I dont want to buy the hardware from China and also i cant, I wanted to get them from a ROM website.

I own the cartridge, so im not stealing, but is it a sin if i downloaded them from the internet.

This is kind of like downloading a song from the internet that you have the CD for but dont want to rip it.

Any tips?

 

[seebs]

It seems to me that the right thing to do is run in emulation only things you legitimately own... Which is pretty hard to do, in some cases. The next step is to encourage vendors to produce emulation-friendly archive media, similar to the Intellivision cartridge CDs one can buy now.

 

[Nikolas222]

but is it a sin if i dont obey the emulation rules?

 

[Jeremiah the Bullfrog]

As far as I know, it is legal to d/l emulators which you own the disk for. That probably will not hold up in court though, so don't go treating it like concrete fact.

 

[phnx]

Yeah, they tend to be more worried about downloading roms than emulators

 

[Jeremiah the Bullfrog]

Whoops! I was thinking of roms, not emulators.

 

[trunks2k]

Emulators should be legal to download, provided that you own the system (not sure on that though). Roms are legal to download if you own a copy of the game. If by some odd chance you get busted for downloading the Rom, you'd have to show evidence that you owned a legal copy of the game.

 

[Nikolas222]

it is ILLIGAL to d/l roms, only lawful to back them up yourself.

So if my FRIEND wanted to download them if he owned the game but he couldnt because he didnt have a backup device, would my FRIEND be sinning?

 

[Stryper]

I think all of these answers are based on opinion. If you truly believe that the law is unclear in this part, and you truly think that what your doing, theres noting wrong in it, then God will too. He will understand.

And if you do get super mario on your palm, who is gonna find you?

 

[marduke]

well it is piracy, its like downloading an mp3, even if you own the song, its still illegal. and technically your friend is breaking the law

 

[SlowRoasted]

This is a pretty grey one if you ask me. Maybe you could call a legal advisor if it bothers you that much. Or maybe if it bothers you that much God is convicting you

 

[wgjones3]

To him that knoweth to do good,and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

James 4:17