Emulators....Illegal or Awesome?

Emulators are basically FREE programs that allow you to play old console games on your computer. (The older ones work best. NES,SNES) I thought it was kinda kewl when i dled it and it really werks. Do you guys think it is illegal?

if you are interested, here is a link to a youtube video that I found to explain it well
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJIq4X6mhh0&feature=related

please feel free to express your opinion. I won't be affended if you tell me you think it is/should be illegal. (I have NES and SNES emulators and they are great)

Well if these systems aren't out anymore why would they make them illegal? :|

Just because they don't make them anymore, doesnt mean they are free. Lets say someone decides to buy a SNES and a few games which costs them (idk) 50 dollars off of Ebay. Emulators allow you to get this for free.

Technically they are illegal but I don't like them too much I don't really get hooked up so yea.

I wanna hear what the gaming guru has to say

I like em. Plus im in gaming group, soo yeah.

Ok, here is what I hbe we'd. It is not illegal if the copyright has expired (anything before 2005) some gamecube games are even legal. However, the emulators and roms aren't even illegal as long as you don't sell/hack them.

I am pretty sure emulators are not illegal, and roms are only illegal if you do not own the game of the rom you are playing.

Gr33n wrote:

It is not illegal if the copyright has expired (anything before 2005)

I have to call you out on this one. Maybe that's right in another country with sane copyright laws, but in the US, everything since 1978 is copyrighted.

Snes/nes ain't got copyrights now. Explain please?

Gr33n wrote:

Snes/nes ain't got copyrights now. Explain please?

The copyright notice on the game itself is incorrect.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware#Copyright_expiration
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

This is very touchy because different games along with different consols have different copyright dates.
Looking over my game collection ive seen alot of different dates.

Personaly just fined them on your own and dont share so we can be safe

I made that mistake once of posting and never again.

Illegal.Why: Well GoW 2 is for the PS2 so you can probably emulate it.So if you want GoW 2 you have to buy a ps3 or 2 and the game.But when you emulate it it's....free. So you are finding a way not to pay money to the creators but you still play the full game.That means it's illegal.

Except your reasoning ha nothing to do with the law. Your wrong. Peruod.

who cares if its illegal, they are fun anyway

Srry Green. If you were talking about the NES. Yeah , the don't have copyright over there games now.

I will explain. Copyright:Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. The exclusive rights are however balanced for public interest purposes with limitations and exceptions to the exclusive right - such as fair dealing and fair use.


I totally agree with Green now!

Fair dealing and fair use. Once having been sold for so long, this fits in those categories.

can i use a emulator for sex cause if u could mail it to me cause i want it

Yes, but only gay sex.

ok thats cool as long as it got a butthole

ummmmm wtf? Emulators =/= sex machines

teunstar wrote:

who cares if its illegal, they are fun anyway

I like your moto "Who cares if its illegal, its fun"