Ethics of game emulation

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webfork
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Ethics of game emulation

#1 Post by webfork »

It's far from the focus of our site, but over time we have talked a lot about quite a few emulation tools (the database includes both MAME and Kawaks). More than once I've wondered about whether this approached piracy, but most of the emulation tools address 20+ year old games, which seems like abandonware to me. As someone who spends a lot of time trying to make a home for very old software, I both appreciate and respect work to maintain programs that might otherwise disappear.

Someone went into some depth around recent recent wrinkles [pcgamer.com] on this topic.

Emka
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Re: Ethics of game emulation

#2 Post by Emka »

A complicated matter in my opinion. Labelling old and unmaintained software as abandonware is often a user-centered or archival approach, whereas the actual legal status of the software and/or its publisher is simply unclear: nullo actore nullus iudex.
Who knows who might try to claim rights once they realise they might actually still make money out of old games in the face of a current retro gaming trend. Nintendo has already climbed on the bandwagon.

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joby_toss
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Re: Ethics of game emulation

#3 Post by joby_toss »

My 2 cents: if I bought the game or if it's a free one, I'll use it on any platform I want, be it the original one or emulated. Not saying this won't break the license, just saying that it's the right thing to do (in my mind).

Specular
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Re: Ethics of game emulation

#4 Post by Specular »

FWIW emulation and emulators in themselves are legal from the videos and articles I've seen, based on court cases in the past. What people do with them is different. I know various communities that legitimately rip their own roms from their game collection. I'm not familiar with the legality aspect of this, but it's the most ethically comfortable the way I see it, akin to ripping a CD you own.

Then there are others who download roms distributed online while still owning the original game, and then a larger group who do so without owning anything. These would fall under your typical piracy with varying ethical levels (apart from legality). There are pros and cons to this. On the one hand it's against the law obviously to distribute commercial games like this, however from an archival standpoint it leads to collections of what eventually become 'vintage' games that are preserved. Additionally (and speaking more generally of piracy rather than roms) such releases are typically DRM-free, which for posterity's sake—and even for many users who legitimately own DRM-laden copies and experience game-breaking issues—is one of the more useful aspects.

That said the ripping/obtaining/potential distribution of game files is distinct from the emulators that allow them to be played so I have no issue with emulators.

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