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CONSOLE GAMES ADAPTED TO PLAY ON A PC - LAWFUL OR PIRACY?

Writing by admin on Sunday, 8 of June , 2008 at 11:24 am

004_13-197x300 CONSOLE GAMES ADAPTED TO PLAY ON A PC - LAWFUL OR PIRACY?

We all know about ROMs. They are old popular console games that are downloaded to play on a PC program called an emulator. These are usually binary code originally stored in read only memory (cartridge games etc), but they also can also come as image files of old disks in obsolete formats. Of course, your normal computer cannot read the original roms without a special adapter. That is basically the role of emulators: specially written programs to imitate (emulate) the functioning of the original console. This allows nostalgic gamers to play the old titles, without the help of the console, sometimes out of market. This is while the whole issue of the vendor’s EULA (End User License Agreement) comes in: * Is it violating copyright law when a game addict downloads onto his pc old roms, say the Super Mario original game, written to play on the original gameboy console?
The game vendors EULA falls within the provision of copyright law, 17 USC 106: “Subject to sections 107 through 120, the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following … (emphasis added - ed.) * 2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work etc.”

This is exactly the position of console vendors such as Sony or Nintendo, who totally prohibit the copying and storing of “derivative works”, including ROMs.

Changing the format from the original cartridge to a pc format therefore violates the vendor’s rights to prepare derivative works under 17 USC 106.2.
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