Dolphin and Nintendo

noah · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 10:43 AM by noah.)

I'm putting this in the Offtopic section so it's not noticeable to guests and so it doesn't lose Dolphin users. If it should be in the General Discussion forum someone remove this text and put it there.

Anyway... I have a link from Nintendo which basically says that a emulator for a Nintendo system is illegal for it supports and encourages pirates to play Nintendo games for free, and that even a backup of a game on your PC is illegal, which makes the legal way we all get our games to play on Dolphin illegal.

Here is the link (it has a bunch more stuff than I explained):
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp

Does this mean that we are all pirates? Or is Nintendo just trying to scare away the real pirates?

**NaturalViolence** · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 08:07 AM by NaturalViolence.)

All I know is it is very clearly not illegal by US law.

If you have not pirated anything than you are not a pirate. Plain and simple. Copying games but not distributing them is not piracy.

noah · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 08:10 AM by noah.)

(05-08-2013, 08:06 AM)NaturalViolence Wrote: All I know is it is very clearly not illegal by US law.

But then why would Nintendo say it is?

**NaturalViolence** · 05-08-2013, 08:13 AM #4

No idea. They didn't state where it was illegal or cite any laws.

***MayImilae*** · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 09:10 AM by MayImilae.)

Because Nintendo wants it to be illegal and will do everything they can to try to make it illegal, even lie. Well, to be correct, "deceive" since it is illegal in some nations, they are saying it to be "safe". But that doesn't change the fact that emulators have been proven legal in the US court system, thanks to cases like Sony v Connectix, Sony v Bleem!, and even older cases like Sega v Accolade.

**AnyOldName3** · 05-08-2013, 09:19 AM #6

If I was nintendo, I'd release my own version of Dolphin (probably based on Dolphin, as it's open source, so I could use it for free), and then charge people to use it, ad charge them to download .isos. The main reason I think this is sensible is that consoles are always sold at a loss (especially just after release) as it is expected that you'll buy a lot more in games than they lost on the original console.

noah · 05-08-2013, 09:42 AM #7

They could actually do something like that with all of their systems. Since the Wii U is so expensive to make, they could turn it into a PC program and have you buy the games from a steam-like store. The store would have Wii U section and a section for every system, so it would be a universal emulator for every system. You would of course have to buy the Wii U controller separate. Of course, Nintendo would never do this. Sad

***MayImilae*** · (This post was last modified: 05-08-2013, 10:13 AM by MayImilae.)

Nintendo is a hardware developer as much as they are a games developer. They make great games to sell systems, and make systems to sell games. Nintendo games will only go onto other platforms if a Nintendo platform fails. Think Sega.

**ExtremeDude2** · 05-08-2013, 10:15 AM #9

(05-08-2013, 09:19 AM)AnyOldName3 Wrote: If I was nintendo, I'd release my own version of Dolphin (probably based on Dolphin, as it's open source, so I could use it for free), and then charge people to use it,

That contradicts itself as you can't charge people to use anything based off dolphin because of its license

noah · 05-08-2013, 10:41 AM **#10**

Hopefully the people who fell for Dolphin Pro read that ^^