Glitch City Laboratories Archives

Glitch City Laboratories closed on 1 September 2020 (announcement). This is an archived copy of a thread from Glitch City Laboratories Forums.

You can join Glitch City Research Institute to ask questions or discuss current developments.

You may also download the archive of this forum in .tar.gz, .sql.gz, or .sqlite.gz formats.

Debate Wars

Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal? - Page 2

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: Zach the Glitch Buster
Date: 2009-06-19 12:27:49
Speaking of copyright, I'm all for it. Normal copyright laws are fine in this country. The only problem is that not all material should apply to a normal copyright. A video game should have a special copyright. One that does not expire quickly but relaxes restrictions after a few years. For example, A video game has a normal copyright for five to seven years, then the new relaxed copyright comes into play. The material is still copyrighted so Nintendo or whoever still owns the idea and mechanics Etc. Etc.  But say, unless the game is being sold on a mass scale that is profitable to the creator, the game would be a free and legal ROM. What the latter part means is that, unless the game is being sold on say the Wii market place, then its free. And used games in Gamestop don't count as "being sold on a mass scale that is profitable to the creator". This way, old games could survive and video game companies would still be happy and make money.

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: Sarial
Date: 2009-06-19 12:52:25
I think 75~120 years is too long for copyrights, if you ask me…

I think they should be more like patents, 20 years with no renewals allowed, but knowing Congress, that probably won't happen -_-

Anyway, I think these "ROMs are illegal" people are crazy, as not too many people have actually been busted for downloading a ROM, AFAIK o_O;;

(besides, I see people getting busted more often with movies and music than ROMs, so the police probably generally don't care, lol)

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2009-06-20 08:10:36


Should GBA roms be illegal to download? Heck, I think Nintendo doesn't even care anymore, what with the GBA slot deleted from the DSi.
The existence of Virtual Console makes it obvious that Nintendo does care about the copyright for their older games.

Yeah, they care all right. They care about the quick profit they can make!

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: Zach the Glitch Buster
Date: 2009-06-20 17:21:34



Should GBA roms be illegal to download? Heck, I think Nintendo doesn't even care anymore, what with the GBA slot deleted from the DSi.
The existence of Virtual Console makes it obvious that Nintendo does care about the copyright for their older games.

Yeah, they care all right. They care about the quick profit they can make!

Yeah, thats why they care about copyright. They make money.

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2009-06-21 12:59:01
I'm adding poll, but feel free to keep adding your opinions!

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: Bluelatios
Date: 2009-06-22 11:19:42
Well, the Dsi does have virtual console for old games, but I agree, very outdated games should be legal for download. I guess maybe if its a classic, really popular one that can still be a profit. As for newer games, well if you have the actual game, I see no reason why you shouldn't have a backup "pc" version of it :). Furthermore, people like the ROM hackers over at Pokecommunity forums need ROMs to create their own hacks because making our own "games" is just so awesome!

Re: Should downloading video game ROMs be illegal?

Posted by: tachi
Date: 2009-07-01 14:05:54
yeah it's called IdeaS. Oh well….. lock