Re: Legal
Posted by Tricob on .
It's always legal to download any game you already own in some form or another. For example, if you own an actual copy of the Commodore 64 version of Joust, you can legally download any version of Joust released, be it for the NES, Atari 2600, or whatever. You can also legally download Joust if you have a physical copy of "William's Arcade Classics", which includes the game "Joust" in its collection.
As for other games, it seems different games follow different legal mumbo-jumbo. Some games are 100% legal because they were never properly copyrighted anyway, despite the copyright notices. And the copyright of many other games has gone kaput because bankruptcy, legal disputes, or business-related loopholes.
I'm 99% sure that any Nintendo-licensed releases aren't legal to download if you don't already own them. In Sega and Atari territory, you're probably in much safer ground. As for the system ROMs of the Sega consoles themselves, I'm not so sure (there's the SMS, the Sega CD, and the 32X).
Some game companies have deliberately made all their older releases 100% legal to download, such as CodeMasters. Oddly enough, Camerica/CodeMasters is actually one of the better companies to release unlicensed NES games.
- Tricob.
"Glass Tiger for life! "
As for other games, it seems different games follow different legal mumbo-jumbo. Some games are 100% legal because they were never properly copyrighted anyway, despite the copyright notices. And the copyright of many other games has gone kaput because bankruptcy, legal disputes, or business-related loopholes.
I'm 99% sure that any Nintendo-licensed releases aren't legal to download if you don't already own them. In Sega and Atari territory, you're probably in much safer ground. As for the system ROMs of the Sega consoles themselves, I'm not so sure (there's the SMS, the Sega CD, and the 32X).
Some game companies have deliberately made all their older releases 100% legal to download, such as CodeMasters. Oddly enough, Camerica/CodeMasters is actually one of the better companies to release unlicensed NES games.
- Tricob.
"Glass Tiger for life! "
Does anyone know if downloading old games like this is legal or not?