Rom usage: Legality issues ... ?

[NorseChief]

I am aware of various laws stating that you are not permitted to use roms that you do not legally own, sell them, etc.

I have a few questions regarding rom usage, legal restrictions and legal penalties ...

- What exactly are the risks involved with using roms that you do not legally own? Are you looking at hefty fines, jail time, getting sued?

- Who are these authorities and how are they going to persecute offenders? More importantly, how are they going to catch them? Are the authorities making an effort to bring them to justice?

- How exactly do you legally own roms? Do you need to own the original games or arcade machines (I doubt anybody is going to have those ...)? For example, most of the roms I have downloaded are Nintendo and Sega Genesis games that I have already bought in the past on the original console. Does that mean I am legally entitled to them? Or do I need to legally own them some other way?

- Downloading and using roms to which you are not legally entitled is the same as stealing right? How serious an offense is this exactly? Is that not the same as downloading songs illegally?

- To be sincerely honest with you, I do have a few MAME roms (none of them are freeware) and I do not own a single arcade machine of any sort. Am I likely to get in trouble for this? I do not want to break the law or anything but it is really cool to be able to play those roms like this.

- I do not want to be a criminal nor do I want to get in trouble. So should I delete all roms that I do not legally own or to which I am not entitled to right now? I also do not want to be stupid, so is that the smart thing to do?

- Are not these legality issues concerning protected roms a little unreasonable? I mean, who actually adheres to this in all honesty?

Thanks for your time!

 

[Epsi]

- How exactly do you legally own roms? Do you need to own the original games or arcade machines (I doubt anybody is going to have those ...)? For example, most of the roms I have downloaded are Nintendo and Sega Genesis games that I have already bought in the past on the original console. Does that mean I am legally entitled to them? Or do I need to legally own them some other way?

You would be amased at how many people actually own the real arcade machines of games. and yes. if you have bought a copy of a game, and stil have that copy, you in a way "legaly" own it, and allowed to play it on a emulator. anything else is considered piracy and illegal.