Re: is emulation piracy?

In the legal sense, all emulation is piracy. The law isn't always black and white though, and what you're describing is the spirit of the law. Take speeding for example. Speed laws are designed to keep roads safe, so if I drive by a cop who clocks me going 60 in a 55 zone I'll get pulled over, right? Of course not. I'm driving safely and following the spirit of the law, why waste his time? Clock me at 100 though and he'll throw the book at me.

The same is true for emulation. Copyright laws exist to protect developers from piracy so downloading a Switch or PS4 game is clearly wrong. But as those games age the line blurs. Is it really "piracy" to download a Ninja Turtles game that hasn't sold in years? Nintendo unfortunately has to follow the letter of the law, so they can't sell any virtual game without permission. That's why if Konami changes their mind Ninja Turtles gets pulled from the store. It's also why most virtual store games are Nintendo published. But there's unscrupulous sites out there that don't fret the letter of the law, and as long as we drive safely the cops won't bother.

someone on this board probably had a debate about this before, but i want to add my 2 cents.

personally, i don't think emulation is piracy for a bunch of reasons.

1. if i want to play a game like say, teenage mutant ninja turles for the NES for example. nintendo doesn't offer it on any of their legal offerings. it was apparently available on the wii virtual console, and i even heard it was delisted but even if it wasn't, nintendo is shutting down the wii shop channel and removed the ability to buy points before the initial shutdown, so i can't buy it. no other company is also offering the game legally. oh and you might say "ebay. you can buy games from there for the nes" which leads me to point 2.

2. buying used games from ebay doesn't support the developer. it doesn't give one cent to the original license holder, developer, manufacturer, etc. sure, it is legal to get, but what if i want to both get a game legally (on legal storefronts maintained by the original license holders) and support the developer? it's not possible. and what if it was a rare game? do i really want to shell out 700 dollars for a flintstones game? how about nwc 1990? that thing rarely even gets a listing on ebay, and even when it does, it's usualy 50k or even 200k dollars. sure there are repros, but again, that doesn't give a cent to the developers.

3. having 20 consoles is impractical, and a costly investment. what if i want to play on BOTH mega drive and nes? and own a lot of games? well, again, it would be difficult and costly to get some of the rare games, and original hardware itself is getting harder to repair as the availability of original parts is dwindling fast because of the fact these consoles are over 20-30 years old now.

i can understand if you disagree all of these and even call me a idiot. it is my opinion tho, and i'd love to hear your stance on this!