There has been a lot of debate in various communities about the validity and legality of ROMs which are the “images” of a game captured from the microchips on the cartridges or disks that contains them (for the techies out there I know this is a gross simplification, however I’m attempting to make this understandable to everyone). First you need to understand that the typical set up for a ROM is the following: A computer running at least twice as fast as the system its emulating, an emulator program, and the ROM. The question that we are looking at however isn’t the legality of having the information since you have that on any cartridge that you own as I’ll explain. Instead the issue breaks down in to a few different parts relating to the entire system (emulator program and ROM) as a whole.
Without going into a lot of legal mumbo jumbo or detailed explanation, I’ll attempt to help you understand things, keep in mind though that this is my understanding. It is not legal advice, it is not guaranteed to be accurate, and it is based off of research done around March 1, 2011. I make no guarantees to its legal accuracy for your state, region, or country, so please do all appropriate research before downloading anything.
To start with the information on a game disk or cartridge that you buy is perfectly legal… with one noted exception. That exception is that the game has to be a legal copy of the game… pretty much most versions that you pick up from a reputable retail establishment is going to be a legal copy. While there are exceptions so if you see a game that seems suspicious, i.e. Pokémon Chaos Black, or is one you’ve never heard of, do your research first. The old adage of “If it seems too good to be true it probably is” applies here, remember look for names you know, and trust.
Even if owning the game is technically legal (again Pokémon Chaos B lack) it is not a version made by the creators, and there for they see no money for the work that they did creating it. In addition it’s not entirely unheard of for a modified ROM like this to potentially damage the hardware that it is installed on. Let me reiterate this… you could actually damage or destroy your system by putting in illegally made games into it.
I’m going to give a short version here, instead of a long version since the discussion on modified ROMs can be an entry all of its own. Some modified ROMS are freely legal… that’s the long and the short of it. However remember any modified copy of the game you buy is one that the creators get no money for, if you have to buy one, then more than likely it’s illegal. For more information please read the link.
The next important thing to know is that owning an emulator in and of itself, so long as that emulator does not use the BIOS of the system that it emulates is legal. The most basic explanation of this is that the emulator can’t use the same operating system that the system uses… so if it uses Windows, then the emulator can’t use Windows. Again this is an over simplification of a complex discussion and more information is available on the internet.
Finally we come to the ROMs themselves since to play a game you have to have a copy of it. There are legal emulated copies of games; however that will go in to part two about ROMs. Most ROMs that you download and run on an emulator are not legal. Without going into a lot of detail, the copyright on games lasts (currently) 75 years from the date of creation, I do not know if that includes sequels though I do not believe they do, as the sequels are separate games.
Wikipedia and other resources have a lot of information about this and much more, with much of it being confusing I will admit. However the safest general rule is that there is no “back up copy” defense currently in the U.S. for copying ROMs of cartridges. This means anything that comes on a cart cannot legally use a copy of that cart in any shape or format, with the exception of in the original format, on the original system (with exceptions being listed in ROMs part two). This means using a ROM is done at your own risk, and you could be found legally responsible and liable for damages for using one.
Tune in next time for additional information on legal emulation.
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