Are Emulators legal?

[Jiggalopuff]

Hai Guyz,

 

While The Nexus has no tolerance for piracy, I was curious as to whether emulators would fall under that category. I am assuming that emulation of current-gen systems would be pretty close(as the user is no longer required to pay for the game), but what about older systems, such as Playstation 1 or 2, or even the 16 or 32 bit systems? Also, I've recently discovered websites that emulate gameboy games right in your browser without any downloads, are these legal?

[Thandal]

There is no "one-size-fits-all" answer to the question of whether a given software product (and the way it is used) is "legal".

 

And for this category, the various copyrights, EULAs, and Terms of Service, (both for the original products and for their later "incarnations") are too numerous and too varied to generalize.

 

In what way do you see this being an issue for the Nexus, since the sites deal (almost) exclusively with PC games anyway?

[JimboUK]

I wouldn't discuss them around here, like console mods they may legal but the companies with their armies of lawyers don't tend to like them and can make life difficult for sites. The BIOSs and ROMs certainly aren't legal, the games are still sold in collections and as mobile games so they've not been abandoned.

[Jiggalopuff]

Thank you Jim, that is essentially what I wanted to know.

[Galacticat42]

For a more specific answer, on whether or not 'emulators' are legal really has to do with what you're emulating on your computer. Generally obsolete systems and games with an out-of-date EULA would be considered legal - seeing as the company that originally made it hasn't bothered to keep a proper, updated copyright on said product which is a flag for public domain (For example Pacman or Tetris). Other games and systems that have an active EULA and Copyright would be considered illegal to emulate (ie Pokemon or Mario). Personally I wouldn't touch emulators with a 20-foot pole.

[JimboUK]

You don't need to update a copyright, it lasts for as long as set out by statute in said country. Trademarks never expire as long as they remain is use. You can't distribute copyrighted music or movies from 20 years ago, the same goes for games. The exception would be where the copyright holder no longer exists and no one else (creditors for example) have taken ownership, such examples are hard to find. Pacman is not public domain, it's owned by Namco who still actively protect both the trademark and copyright.

[ziitch]

A few emulators are very much accepted into being legitimate software, as their system is in no longer supported anymore or would never be able to run on modern hardware without it. This tends to be emulators for old PCs, like the Spectrum ZX and Commodore 64, where some of the emulators are officially supported by the companies that made that line of computers. DOSBox would be another example - Several games that you get from GOG have it included, or if you get the DOOM collection from Steam, it comes with the DOSBox emulator so that those games can work on a modern PC.

 

It's kinda sad that cracked ROMs and emulators is the closest form of a viable archive we've got for a lot of programs, though. :(