Here’s Why ROMs & Hacks Are Illegal 

Here’s a list of the ROM Hacks I showed in order of appearance: Mario Adventure (SMB3 Hack) Lakitu’s Great Adventure (SMW Hack) Super Mario 64 Land (SM64 Hack) Super Mario 64 Last Impact (SM64 Hack) Mario’s Nightmare 64 (SM64 Hack) Super Mario Bros The Early Years (SMW Hack) Mario In Some Usual Day (SMB3 Hack)

I'm not paying fifteen bucks for a game that Nintendo, Sega, etc. made many millions off of 30 years ago. Also with many of these games it's either emulation or hunt down an old copy, and either way the company doesn't see a dime.

I think the issue with downloading ROMs isn't with legality, but with preservation. If a game company refuses to give people modern options to play older titles, while also going out of their way to prevent them from having unauthorized access to obtain them, they're basically giving the middle finger to their own games. They'd rather sit on their IPs and not let anyone touch them while also not doing anything with them themselves. While piracy of these games isn't legal, to many players, it's necessary in order to keep them accessible for generations

Personally, I have no problem downloading ROMs. I have thousands of ROMs covering multiple systems and MAME. On a different note, a few weeks ago, I read an article that someone had scanned and uploaded almost every issue of Nintendo Power to the Internet Archive website. When I read this, I immediately downloaded all 158 issues that were available. On December 15, 2022, I read an article that NOA caught wind of their magazine being available for download and forced the website to remove the files. And Gruz, just like you said, Nintendo is extremely protective of its intellectual properties. I am glad that I downloaded them when I did. Looking at the magazines, even though they are in a PDF file and perfectly legible, brings back wonderful memories.

I always knew it wasn't legal but at the same time didn't care. For the most part it is video game preservation and not only that but some of the games are insanely priced to own an original of it

I remember when ROM sites had a warning that you had to delete the files after 24 hours and I would turn off my router for a whole day, freaking out that I'd be arrested lol

Takes me back to the glory days of selling packs of ROMs with emulators on floppy disks at school.

"Do what you want cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate! Yarr har fiddle dee dee Being a pirate is alright to be Do what you want cause a pirate is free You are a pirate!"

There are so many games that come from companies that are dissolved these days. It would be near impossible to re-release certain games, but Nintendo still claims that downloading roms of those games hurts their sales when they have no intention of re-releasing the game.

Emulators and source ports are generally legal as well due to Reverse Engineering being considered a valid way to discover trade secrets. Which is how the Mario PC port can exist. Still gets some issues when selling but generally they aren't for profit.

Personally I have no issues with downloading ROMs of games I already own. While it might not be legal (not sure about the exact situation here in Austria), I at least don't see it as morally wrong.

I think roms are very important to preserving history. If a game is no longer available to the masses, to purchase, or even playable in legal means, then those should be completely legal to rip, shared, downloaded, and played for no profit. If somebody owns a game, and downloaded a rom they did not rip themselves, but wants an easier way to play that game, that also should be legal. Newer games, where devs from studios, big or small, that's the fine line people cross. People should be paid for their hard work, and I personally think there should be a waiting period for playing roms of said newer games.

The most egregious problem in this is that copyright laws aren't about protecting the creators but the corporations. Most of the times the creators are stripped of their earnings because rights were sold so the owner becomes the company and the creator just gets whatever he was paid initially, without any possibility of getting residuals down the road if they do millions with their creation.

disney threw their weight behind the modern copywrite law for fear of losing mickey mouse to the public domain

I don't mind ROMs, especially for systems as old as the NES. I do mind those illegal carts though.

Emulation is preservation. When companies won't care about their old IPs and leave them to be forgotten. It's up to the fans to keep the memories alive. Let's not do what the movie industry did in the days of the Silent Era and let these games gather dust and decay.

As for ROMs & ISOs, yes I download them & have no issue with doing it.

A patch file is perfectly fine to distribute, it only contains the differences between the hack and the original ROM that it's based on. I wouldn't put it on a cartridge and sell it though.

Great video! What really irks me most with this situation, no matter the legality: That many content creators do not separate between Emulation and Piracy. And thus the majority on the internet actually just uses the two words synonymously. When in actuality, emulation can be done without piracy (dumping one's own games), and piracy can be done (and taken advantage of) without emulation (modding your console to play the ROMs)

What I hate most about draconian copyright laws and aggressive Nintendo lawyers is that their official "legal" version to play old games on new hardware is always, ALWAYS inferior to loading them up on a modern cycle accurate emulator with amazing post-processing shaders. And a huge portion of these old game libraries are impossible to distribute legally because they are long lost in IP hell after companies go bankrupt and portfolios bought by companies that don't care about anything other than swallowing a competitor. So I would encourage downloading a full ROMset for a 30 year old platform while you still can and not care too much about what Nintendo thinks about the matter.

Considering the fact that many of these old games are becoming very pricey on eBay just for the copy of the game with nothing else, and especially those digital only games from the Nintendo DSi Shop, the Wii Shop Channel, and the Nintendo eShop for the 3DS & Wii U, which have disappeared or are disappearing forever, I think law must consider the concept of video game preservation. I personally play using original copies of games and with official emulation, but I can understand the pain some people might have from companies like Nintendo who are chasing them for doing something related to a law that is probably not working well.

As long as people not selling them I don't see any problem

ok but what if i dont care about the law implication of buying or downloading abandonware or 50 year old software?

Law is only tangible in so far as a government's ability to enforce said laws. Preventing people from stealing physical video games was easy enough before the age of the internet. However enforcing the whole, "downloading roms is illlegal" thing is impossible. With all that said, the law doesn't care about stuff that we care about, like backing up our games, convenience, video game preservation, and availability. It's kinda hard to legally purchase entire arcade machines that never got a home release. But the law doesn't care about that, or rare games that aren't physically sold anymore, or are unreasonably overpriced by scalpers and run on hardware that is dying. Imagine a world where emulation was never invented. Retro gaming would be dead. Emulation is essential for video game preservation, not just for us, but for future generations. Take a look at a list of lost films from the silent film era. It's inevitable fact that all art is doomed to be destroyed. Unlike anything else, art is impossible to replicate if it's lost. If all copies of a silent film are gone, it's gone forever. The same is true for any art, including video games. While we can't prevent art from being lost forever (it's inevitable), we can delay its eventual demise, and preserve it for as long as possible for future generations, and emulation is absolutely necessary for that. With all that said, use your moral compass. Emulate the old stuff, buy the new stuff. And if you already own a new video game, you don't have to feel bad for acquiring a copy of it as a backup or for convenience. Simple. Emulation naturally favors older stuff anyway, so it all works out in the end.

Yeah I'm gonna continue to download whatever I want, maybe if copyright law wasn't so one sided I might consider purchasing, but it is and so I won't. Great video for sure though!

Lmao "ninetendo considers illegal" brought a tear to my eye.

God forbid if Nintendo doesn't get another $5 on a 30 year old game that was originally $50-$60.

The thing that blew me away the most about copyright law is that everything with an "End User License Agreement" / EULA *isn't my property. I have a license to use it.* Unreal

What are your thoughts on companies that no longer exist? If no one owns the license to the game anymore, is it okay to download it then?

This is definitely easier said than done, especially since the price of ORIGINAL retro games have climbed through the roof! Yeah I own some Chinese multiple-in-1 carts, but at least I'm not making copies and reselling them.

I knew it was illegal, but in some cases it's the only way we have to preserve games (anything on the Satelliview for example minus Radical Dreamers which was released again by SE). Personally I try to buy games that get re-released or put onto a service (like NSO) but if the company is unwilling to sell me the game, I am all for getting a rom (or iso). Especially for a game like Paper Mario TTYD, the game physically goes for way too much and Nintendo won't be seeing that money anyway.

There's legality and morality. The two aren't the same thing. I'm all for paying for stuff but you can't buy what they're not selling. If something isn't available to buy, probably been out of print for decades, you're not hurting the companies that made the game by obtaining a rom in another way.

I have zero problems with roms. I remember when I was younger, I was thinking the FBI would kick my door down with the roms I had back then.

The way I see it, roms and emulators are perfectly legal to have so long as you dont make a buck off them. Stay as an end user and you're golden i think

I typically opt to purchase the game in question in its original form, if it's affordable and/or accessible through other avenues. However, if it's out of this world price wise (and rarity) to get in its original form and not accessible through legal ways such as re-releases (i.e. M2, Hamster Corp, City Connection, misc. compilations) I would resort to downloading the ROM to play and enjoy the game.

I always download ROM's, but never distribute them. I make my own backups but it's really difficult to back up cartridges. In my honest opinion, these copyright laws are really outdated and need many updates to work in today's times.

In essence ROMs can be used under the Fair Use Act, you can use and showcase games so long as you are non commercial non profit and give the proper credits where they are due. Some companies are no longer in business either. Bottom line if you can pay to support the devs, do so. If not give credits where due and stay non profit on others work.

Depends on the Rom I suppose. There are numerous games that won't see a rerelease and are impossible to buy now. Even if you do the money goes to a secondary market so none of that goes to the license holder. Which is unfair for the media. Additionally games now a days even if you own the disc you don't really own the game. The games as a service practice where what you are doing is buying the privilege to play the game that way any copies not paid for are considered theft. Your big companies like EA and such being guilty of this. Even Nintendo feels this way too which is why they use to only let certain people stream and record video of their games.

Some issues with your analysis. - Laws are prohibitive, they do not grant you the ability to "do" things. It's a free country, so unless a law expressly forbids it, it is allowed. - Copyright applies to the creation of copies, not to the obtaining of copies someone else has made. - If you know for a fact that someone made copies illegally, then you could be guilty of other laws if you participate in this activity with them.

Being a Translator, it's always a juggle to figure out if a company will come after you, despite us owning and dumping our purchased games.

Ok... This question has been on the back of my mind for decades! Thanks for making a video I didn't know I needed!

I simply look at it as game preservation. If the older games & systems go away & if emulation wasn't a thing, how would people be able to enjoy many of the retro games we grew up with? This especially goes for arcade games since arcades are nearly extinct.

Once a company is no longer making its game available for sale why would it care? What are they losing?

Most cases these ROMs, the creators of the games are not making profits from particular games anymore and anything that is still available are mostly 2nd hand and some are considered collectors that are too pricey so I myself do not see it as a big deal to download ROMs. If the games are still being manufactured then I think they can do something about it.

poggers!! I'll continue to download ROMs regardless of if I own the game physically or not tho

should add that in some places it's not piracy if the company in question is not officially in the country... or if the company/rights owner doesn't exist anymore. (abandonware)

This is a law that's largely unenforceable. ROMs and emulators allowed me to experience games I wasn't able to play because I couldn't afford them when i was younger.

I am so glad to see your channel growing Gruz. You are one of those good people that I really want good things to happen to.

This is pointless. The FBI isn't going to kick in your door for downloading old NES & SNES games. Besides, there's benefits to playing these old games digitally. #1 - Digital storage beats physical storage as your collection isn't subject to physical damage (especially PS1/2 games stored on DVDs which could be easily scratched & become unreadable). They don't take up physical space, which is always a good thing. Also, digital files can be infinitely copied, in case something happens to your computer, copy to a flash drive or external hard drive. #2 - Patching Bugs & Glitches. ROM Hacking has brought many fixes to old games with really bad bugs & glitches which was never fixed. This meant that actual Beta Testing was needed before releasing a game because what you put on the cart or disc was final, unlike nowadays where constant internet connection is required & allows developers to modify the game after it's been released, which is why Beta Testing is no longer a thing anymore. You are paying to beta test the game now (Pokemon Scarlet & Violet). #3 - ROM Hacks! They breathe new life into old games by redesigning them and/or adding Quality of Life features that weren't thought of back then. For example, Mega Man X3, Zero was a playable character, but barely functional. Then Justin3009 comes along & makes Zero into a FULLY playable character, making his hack the definitive version to play. Then there's also Randomizers for games like Zelda LTTP & Super Metroid, which reshuffles item locations to make a somewhat new experience. Zelda 2's randomizer is even better because it actually randomizes the world map layout, along with the interiors of the palaces. Moral of the story is, keep pirating & give the finger to the now corrupt & greedy video game industry, who brought us bullshit like Loot Boxes (gambling for children, but then again, so was Trading Card Game booster packs), DLC (give us more money for useless costumes!) & Pay2Win bullshit, etc.

Clarification of a few points; 1. No, you're not going to get in trouble for DOWNLOADING old games. However if your download method method is BitTorrent, you are also UPLOADING those games at the same time as you're downloading, and companies DO care about that. If you're using BT to download ISO files for the Gamecube or Wii, chances are that you're going to get a copyright warning from Nintedno through your ISP.. Same for Sony and Microsoft, and possibly even Sega. If you're downloading them from a website, you'll be safe. Well, mostly. If a site says that you need to install some program to download anything, find another site. And if you get a popup ad telling you that you have a virus or other BS, just close it. 2. According to the law, you have a right to make backup copies of the media that you own, however the DMCA makes it illegal to bypass any form of copy protection to do so. Beyond that, the DMCA also makes it illegal to modify a game console to actually play those backups. Even the tools to do so are illegal. 3. Video games from the 80s and 90s SHOULD be well out of copyright by now, but they're not. In fact, unless a company or author specifically releases their work (game, movie, song, book, etc) to the public domain, absolutely NOTHING created in your lifetime will ever become public domain. You can thank Disney for that. See, when copyright was first put into law, it only lasted for 14 years, with an option to renew the copyright for another 14 years. The idea was that a creator would have a decent amount of time to profit from their work before it INEVITABLY became public domain, at which point, they would probably need to create something new. They COULD keep selling their previous works, but so could anyone else. THe creator gets time to profit, the work becomes public domain, at which point, anyone can make use of it, and society benefits. However, Disney and others, while drawing on the public domain for the inspiration for many of their works, absolutely, positively, under no circumstances, wants to allow anything that they've ever created from becoming public domain. So they lobbied the government into repeatedly extending copyright, such that it now lasts 70-90 years AFTER the death of the author. Or after the date of publication, it differs for individuals and stuff created for someone else. So long after the original author is dead and buried, their descendants are still collecting royalty checks from their works. NES games will be under copyright for another 30-50 years. And that's if Disney doesn't convince the US government to extend copyright AGAIN. Which they might do, as Steamboat Willie's copyright is set to expire soon. Although some people claim it's already in the public domain. Wait, so how does what happens in the US affect the rest of the world? Through trade deals! They make it a condition that other countries have to apply similar copyright terms, and this then makes it harder to loosen copyrightm because doing so would violate the trade agreements that THEY forced on other countries. Basically, copyright law is a huge, stinking mess that favors mega-corporations and the descendants of long-dead authors.

My whole channel is playing Zelda Rom Hacks. I think they're brilliant. Emulation to me, is being able to play games that aren't for sale anymore. If I can buy a brand new copy of a game, I will. I'm not paying collector prices for a game I'm going to play once and stick on a shelf. I've given Nintendo THOUSANDS of dollars. I think I should be able to play a few ROMS here and there.

The thing is, I want physical cartridges. But I'm not going to pay over $100 for one. So I'm just going be.... outsourcing. If they make official cartridge reprints at a reasonable price, we can talk.

Gabe Newell: Piracy is an issue of service, not price.

ROM hacks usually come in patches so you have to dump your ROM and patch it yourself to prevent copyright law infringement!

I would like to see a video of the legality of emulators and FPGAs, as there are many different methods of how some of these are made, where some use a ripped bios.

It's not just a question about legality but ethics as well. Many gamers might look at downloading roms for the sake of preservation as ethical while others disagree. Honestly it's hard to tell if there is a right or wrong answer regarding the ethics of it.

I own a few multicarts one in a Nintendo style cartridge and about six in Famicom style cartridge's. Of course I don't plan on selling them, but this is some great information to know. Thank You Gruz. Happy New Year by the way.

Fun fact. The original copyright length in the United States was 14 years with an occasionally granted 14 year renewal. Patents were originally 40 years. As technology and society move faster patent length has been halved to 20 years because the amount time where something is new and cutting edge is much shorter. Copyright length on the other hand has increased to 70 years after the death of the author, or 95 years in the case of corporate works. Nothing off there...

The only time I say screw the law is when it comes to games that can’t be re purchase by the consumer due to licensing issues. Like WWF no mercy will never be in the e shop or NSO, so there is only one way to play it outside native hardware. What about the games that just flat out disappear from digital stores?

I can see both sides and don’t blame Nintendo for wanting to get paid. With that being said, as with any decision, you weigh the pros and cons of downloading roms online. For me it’s a no brainer. I have had a blast over the last couple years downloading and replaying my childhood. It really makes me appreciate the developer for their hard work! It’s art. I can remember the stress of having enough money for one game and the risk involved in case the game sucked after getting it home. Now I own them all, and it’s glorious!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this is only valid if they have bought copyright protection, which eventually EXPIRES. Once it expires, you can download and play it all you want. This is way you may see old cartoons be played and modern movies or TV shows, because it's so old the copyright has expired.

There's always been massive misconception that all ROM hacking is purely illegal. As an NES ROM hack creator, I've done some pretty extensive looks into 17 USC § 117. I would recommend checking out 17 USC §107, and 17 U.S. Code § 102 as well, which covers fair use in the argument of copywrite. In the case of preservation, patches, de-compilation's and mod's it's all perfectly legal to do IF you stay non-profit. A major portion of what makes copying, selling and distributing ROM's illegal is the potential damages in sales done to a company. Hacks of new titles that still make a lot of profit are more likely to get DMCA'd. I recommend always getting or finding permission from the creator or company before you start hacking. Companies like SEGA and Konami are really lenient on non-profit fan developers and will sometimes even promote indie content like SAGE. In some cases hacks can actually help boost the sales of the companies you love by re-introducing legacy and untranslated content to new fans. If your interested in making your own hacks, I would highly recommend checking with the developers first to ensure your in the clear.

Man... I remember when I was a kid, my brother downloaded a Snes emulator with basically every single rom for the Snes. We didn't care about laws and stuff (even if it is one of the most important things ever), we just wanted to play Super Mario on the PC. Good Times! Also at 0:22 you showed my rom-hack! That's awesome!!!!

It's good to know that the hack of Pokemon Soul Silver I'm aiming to create is probably legal. So hopefully the story of the trainer that just gets worse and worse and less and less likeable as time goes on is gonna be fine. Well, hopefully I'll figure out how the heck I can even hack it properly as well. By the way - I do think downloading some certain roms is fine, if you own the cartridge legally and don't have the money/ability to dump it, or if the game is extremely hard to find. Even so, I rarely play games I haven't before on emulator, when I do it's to test them before looking for a real copy. I'm still hunting for a copy of Fossil Fighters 2 so I can play legally.

I can't believe how many video game stores I go to that sell carts of NES and SNES hacks, as well as reproduction carts that contain "translated into English" roms of games that were originally only released in Japan. There are also online sellers who specialize in selling repro carts and hacks. I don't know how these people continue to avoid getting in any legal trouble.

Interestingly, many randomizers are used in races, which amount to being rom hacks. These are in fairly big tournaments, sometimes with cash prizes. Link to the Past and Super Metroid come to mind as big names in randomizer races. I don't think they are considered to be breaking any laws, though there is no way to prove where they acquired the ROM. I would think they fall in a similar category to remixes of music. Might be worth considering. I know some of these tournaments are fairly large and would probably garner some attention if they were illegal, so I'm thinking they aren't. The tournaments are very strict about any custom music used in the games too (changing the music is possible) so they might be taking copyright very seriously.

Okay, but what about downloading game which was not released in a specific region? I can't pay for it in a video game store, but even if I find and buy a copy it will not boot on a region locked console. The obvious way is download these old games. Some games were never re-released and downloading such roms will not harm the developer

This video is awesome. Thanks for the great content, Gruz!

So would translations like the mother 3 English rom be protected? Or would languages patches be another gray area?

I Really enjoy this video, waiting for your next one.

I always get excited when I see you post another video

Fun fact: Nintendo LOST THE CODE to the original Super Mario brothers, and had TO GO A ROM SITE THEMSELVES to use in one of their compilation releases.

I use emulation and download roms online only if I don't own the hardware or the game (or if I have to test my homebrew games). Those can get insanely expensive over here, especially stuff like the MSX computers, which are pretty much impossible to get, so stuff like "legally owning the rom only if you already own the physical release" is bullcrap for me. Most of the time, you just buy the game pre-owned, so the publisher doesn't see a single penny from your purchase. And is it still illegal if the games you download roms of were made by some defunct company and are out of print? Real hardware is my preferred way of playing most games, it's so much more fun and satisfying, and it's very cool to own an original copy of an old game.

4:02 man i hate that Like i'm not going to spend thousands of money for a rom dumper

This was very informative and funny for me because it made laugh at wasted birthday gifts. When I went to the Philippines during summer to visit family, I would ask my aunts and uncles for an early gifts for my birthday which was in September. I was seven and a very impulsive buyer that wanted new GBA games but didn't know game stores there sold fake cartridges. When I bought my first Sapphire game the plastic was black not the signature blue until I came back to the US. Granted the first time I was first introduced to piracy was with the original PlayStation, because the stores would have a hard time selling an unmodded console and whited9sc -games due the economy and the local currency having an moderately low exchange rate during the early 2000s (which my favorite cousin, Joseph, had a lot of).

Most rom hacks that are well known are distributed as patch files. Patch files don't distribute any of the original game's data. Only what was modified.

Great video I enjoy watching it and learning from it. 😁👍✌️😎

Really interesting video I really enjoyed it. Thanks for making it.

Do you think you can make a video on if Making fan games to see if they are either illegal or legal?

I don't see anything wrong with hacks & homebrew. Seems like it's the SELLING of said items is the big issue. Corporates hate sharing.

more of this type of video please!!!!!

I have one of those nes cartridges thats 143 games in 1. I bought it at a video game store (not gamestop), and i have been playing it on my system. im guessing somebody must have sold it to them. Now you say "no rights to resell the game", so if i was to sell my system and games to any video game store that buys retro systems and games, youre saying i would not be able to sell them that one?

i would pay for those games, but i don't have the money or the urge to play longer than minecraft of hill climb, and i will play it on my chromebook that i am on now

“Never talk to me or my 6000 roms ever again”

I'm new to emulation and am happy for this video giving me more simplistic insight. I want to keep out of piracy and backup my own physical games. However, I get downloading online ROMs are wrong (unless they're public domain), but what about getting a console's BIOS files? Based on my research so far, the only means I found is either getting one online or jailbreaking your console to copy its BIOS to PC. The latter involves making your console contraband and the former sounds like piracy (debatable if a pirate broke the law so that I'd only bend it). The idea of doing one illegal act or the other for a legal purpose feels like a gun without bullets. Granted I'm in no "immediate" danger for either method, but I'd like to know if there's legal means to get BIOS.

This was funny to watch, especially being that maybe a little more than a year ago I bought myself a new SD flash cart for DS from Amazon which also came with a 32GB micro SD card. To my surprise, the SD card was full of ROMs.

I rip my own games using a retroblaster or the actual console, use flash carts, use patches for hacks, and don’t have Internet. I think I’m good

I have only one rom for golf on gameboy which i also own the physical gameboy and game. You do an excellent job with these videos. Smart dude, thanks for the videos.

Hah, go figure. Ngl tho, in most cases downloading a rom of game and taking it for a spin, usually ends up either me buying it on a console or i put the game down as i dont have any interest in it. Considering a test drive of some sort.

i believe the legality of downloading roms should be dependent on if their producers are still selling them and how morally correct they are aka im finding an excuse to say "nintendo are assholes, pirate their switch games"

I believe in trying to stay in the law whenever possible, or at least the spirit of it. But for things like say the arcade version of Robocop? Well do what you can. Lately I've been on a retro pc kick and using my legitimate software is a pain. You have to hack and effectively cheat just to install Windows xp and 98SE, much less games. Its a bit less difficult if you can maintain older computers but again maintaining said machines is an issue too. Plus who has the space for multiple machines? Gog and Steam can ease the troubles but why do I need to rebuy games I own? I shouldn't have to and thus generally don't unless its like the cost of a cup of coffee or whatnot.

hypothetical here, so if I bought a gbc, Pokemon R/B/Y/G/S back in the 90's/00's new from toys r us and get an emulator and the rom's its considered a backup? Only reason I'm asking is the save battery in these games are dead and I have to leave the gb on or start over every time I want to play now, but emulating on pc would solve this problem.

i literally have a flash cart for almost every system i own, and have all my various carts/etc dumped to them, specifically so i don't have to deal with possibly damaging or wearing out a given game due to who knows what random possibility. some of these are getting harder and harder to find, or fix. i'm still trying to find a compatible pcb to move my omega ruby mask rom chip onto. no one seems to have any cross reference for it that i've been able to find, in spite of the games being known to have suspect PCBs in the first run.

i take it as the websites are the ones committing an illegal act, not the downloader. i've taken it as buying software for $0.00.

DUDE you need to do more Commodore content!

From what I understand it's illegal to distribute games but it's not illegal to download games. That's what I heard on MSNBC during a show that was completely unrelated to piracy but an example of piracy was used as an analog... Don't take my word for it because you should do what you think is right but that's my understanding of the law...

Disney screwed over the copyright system to keep Mickey Mouse out of the Public Domain.

I downloaded all the nes and snes roms a long time ago. I'm glad I did before those sites got taken down. I paid full price for many of those games back in the 90s, ya know when a cart was like $70($140 adjusted for inflation!) They made their money. Now its time to preserve the old games so they don't disappear. Hell many modern games are now completely lost to time bc they shut down the server needed to play that game. At least a burned ROM chip never changes. Games are made with little quality control these days. How many new releases were broke on launch day? Sucks to pay 60 bucks for a game, then have to wait a month for patches just for it to be playable.

They didn't stop me and my friends in 2005 when we played Super Mario Bros. 3 on our high school computer machines in class, had 17 years to stop me since then but I hadn't seen them. B^)

I feel like Nintendo*, Sega, and every other major company would applaud you for clarifying this *but also say even the lightest gray isn’t recommended to anyone for their games