The Best Things in Life are Free

[Dog Food]

I'm not sure where this would go, so I'm putting it here and it can be changed if need be.

So, emulators and ROMs are illegal, right? But if they are, why are sites that have these ROMs and emulators allowed to give their files away? Just like downloading music is illegal, but places like Limewire are still around. I'm pretty sure most sites that stream movies for free are taken down, though.

Discuss the act of getting things illegally, whether it is okay, what are the consequences, and all that jazz.

[Thirdkoopa]

Should stay here in PO; It's more about downloading than personal life.

Depends on what we're talking about in the specifics of piracy - I've been down this road many times. They are still loosing money in the end even despite the people who "Wouldn't buy it anyways" Due to the people that just will. Gaming Piracy sure isn't as big as companies say it is as I posted an article on it two months back but it doesn't stop the fact that it's still there.

Personally with gaming piracy I think it should only be done if there's no means of getting it or as a type of rental period. I mean really, would you go flat out buying Earthbound for 80$ or so before even playing it or getting a general taste of what it's like? But that's just me. I plan on buying anything I've pirated at one point or another with gaming.

[Nanako]

It's because people here are allowed to have one copy of their digital content (games, music etc), meaning that if you want to be legal, you have to have the original content before you may have a digital copy. I got a flashcard for the DS, but not a single illegal game on it. Every game I have on it are copies of games I own for real. I wouldn't have been able to get those games on my flashcard if ROM sites didn't exist.
That's the reason why those sites still exist. It's for people that have no other ways of acquiring copies of their games. Of course, this only works for countries that have these kind of laws. So usually, the servers of these ROM sites are hosted in these countries. And naturally, not that many people are honest and just download the games without having the original anyway.

[Mystic]

Nintendo doesn't allow backups of games :3

[Turok]

Nintendo doesn't allow backups of games :3

If I can't buy it from them, or in a way that the company receives money for it. I'm fine getting the rom, regardless of if I own the original.

[Mystic]

If I can't buy it from them, or in a way that the company receives money for it. I'm fine getting the rom, regardless of if I own the original.

How does that relate to what I said?

[Nanako]

Nintendo doesn't allow backups of games :3

They won't give me support if I have backups of games. And that's fine by me. However, they can't disallow me to have backups of games.