Is emu4ios (a videogame simulator) legal?
emu4ios is a simulator that plays GBA games on your iphone and ipad and downloads all of the GBA games for free. I was wondering if it was legal because now GBA games are out of production so the companies are not making any more money off of them. Please help, thanks!
Comments
Let me break this down into two parts...
1) Emu4IOS IS LEGAL... as emulators have the same legal rights as VCR's, BitTorrent & CD/DVD-Burners.
2) The GBA / GBC / GBY roms that it utilizes, HOWEVER, ARE ILLEGAL due to the lengthy statutes of CORPORATE Copyright law... which extends ~120 years from the noted copyright date of the release medium.
This means that the earliest GBY title will not enter the public domain until ~2110 & GBA titles around 2120. While such titles are not longer in physical production, they're still available in digital versions like the Virtual Console of the Wii, Wii U & 3DS where the companies who own the copyrights are still getting paid for them.
HOWEVER, as the physical copies are no longer in the primary marketplace (relegated to the secondary markets like eBay), you're likely to get away with your illegal activities as long as you're not actively distributing the illicit materials.
In short... PROCEED AT YOUR OWN MORAL & LEGAL RISKS.
Just because they're not making gba games anymore doesn't mean you can steal it. They don't make dodge neons anymore but that doesn't mean I can walk into a car dealership and take it for free (even though they should give it away for free because its this generations ford pinto).
The program is legal, but the roms are illegal.
they are still under copyright
and no doubt will be sold on nintendo's eshop so no
the emulators are perfectly legal
downloaded rom's are illegal
unless you are capabel of creatinga rum dump of games you own which si fine because its a back up copy of something you own
as long as you have the orginal your back up is legal
if you get rid of the orginal your back up is illegal
savvy ?
Emu4ios Gba