Dolphin, the GameCube and Wii emulator - Forums

Nearly anything can be used illegally nowadays, however that doesn't make them or their intended uses any less legal, emulation has always been about preservation of hardware and games for future generations. The developers and staff on various legit/legal emulation forums (not these so called rip off warez emulation forums) have always encouraged users to legally dump their games and offer no support to suspected or known pirates. Emulation is legal according to the US Supreme Court, corporations such as Sony have lost numerous battles against emulation, even against commercial emulators such as Connectix and Bleem for instance.

Issue a polite response explaining why emulation isn't illegal and link them to the following:

http://www.law.northwestern.edu/journals/njtip/v2/n2/3/

Nintendo and other companies can state anything they want in their EULA's, however that doesn't make it legally binding especially when even the courts have ruled in favor of emulation on numerous occasions. EULA's are not a legally binding document, until the contents are contested in a court of law and ruled in favor of the company or corporation that published the EULA. Nintendo always stated that emulation was illegal in their EULA for a while despite this not being true, they later changed this to state that downloading games over the internet is illegal regardless of ownership, even if you own the game.

So in the end, what are people going to do when the actual hardware and games no longer exist and they want to relive a piece of classic history?

I got into the same thing with the folks at Destructoid a while back, and by the way Jim Sterling is an utterly retarded douchbag that deserves to be fucked over in every possible way imaginable to the human mind.

Gamesradar.com , RTFM !

I don't think anyone 'really' minds people who download atari games, titles that are absolutely impossible to find for nes etc.. Since those companies don't lose out financially. Nintendo's official stance is against all emulation, though they likely know they don't lose out on anything when an unavailable title from '82 is downloaded.. If it's not even available on virtual console for wii, even less.. It's just the same as buying it from 2nd hand dealer, Nintendo gets nothing off it..

But as wii games are very recent and all of them are available.. Pirating them is plain out stealing the living and hard work of the developers who made those games. There is no excuse.. Even ripping them for your own use is as easy as clicking a single mouse button as long as you have the correct drive (which costs nothing).

(05-22-2010, 01:03 AM)Ocean Wrote: [ -> ]titles that are absolutely impossible to find for nes etc..

why is it then that i can find loads and loads of nes titles that are good on random sites?

I've seen a US corporate software site hosting roms such as GBA, NES, N64, etc

Quote:Especially when you consider that the only way you can currently see High-Def shots of what the Wii is absolutely capable of are via an illegal emulator?

That part I italicized and put in bold is a link to Neogaf, it seems that Neogaf probably hinted at or claimed emulation was illegal and games radar mentioned this when they wrote the article. It's simply a misunderstanding or a misinformed opinion by the uninformed masses and is the reason why emulation isn't widely accepted despite it's use being completely legal. Those who aren't educated on the legality of emulation tend to automatically associate it with piracy, instead of treating the two as different.

Emulation has it's legal and illegal uses as everything else does in this world, but that is something that is constantly overlooked or ignored. Yes the downside is that emulation can be used to play illegally obtained games, just consider that a hunting rifle can be used legally for hunting or it can be used illegally as a murder weapon. Should everyone automatically assume that use of a hunting rifle is illegal despite it's legal uses?

People load pirated games into HW as well, so what is the difference between the emulator and real HW? Only that the emulator is free, but means, banning the emulator wouldn't stop piracy at all.

One thing is, a good playable emu means an easier (and cheaper) way to play your (pirated) games, doesn't mean that dolphin itself is to blame but you can't deny that it does help growing piracy.

(05-22-2010, 01:43 AM)Daco Wrote: [ -> ]

(05-22-2010, 01:03 AM)Ocean Wrote: [ -> ]titles that are absolutely impossible to find for nes etc..

why is it then that i can find loads and loads of nes titles that are good on random sites?

Impossible to find legally.. Like some collector's games that are 99.9% likely not to appear on even auction sites except a few times a year. There is no way Nintendo is losing money if these games are downloaded.