Why are emulators legal?

[yip9]

Please educate me: why are emulators legal? Creating an emulator requires reverse engineering the system that that a program endeavors to emulate, however most electronics state that the user may not attempt to 'reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble' it.

 

[Johno2518]

Emulators are legal because they are mimicking the hardware (put very simply). There are numerous detailed explanations on the internet and probably here on the forum. Decompile refers to the software (BIOS/firmware/games), disassemble usually refers to voiding warranty and also safety precautions. Reverse engineering usually deals with stealing the IP and making your own hardware from copying etc. Could be wrong but there may be more to that.

 

[ulaoulao]

Oh this gets old....

According to all legal precedents, emulation is legal within the United States. However, unauthorized distribution of copyrighted code remains illegal, according to both country specific copyright and international copyright law under the Berne Convention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console_emulator

EMULATION WILL NEVER BE ILLEGAL!!!

If this concept was illegal then word star would not be able to open ms word docs, now would it? If you produce "media" and a way to read it, you can not stop anyone else from reading it.

 

[yip9]

Thank you, Johno and ulaoulao. I'm glad to learn.

 

[Johno2518]

Nicely said ulaoulao.

It's similar to modding your console. The vendors hate it but its not illegal, what is illegal is playing backups you haven't purchased (it's like modding your car, it isn't illegal to make changes to it). But modding is a hole different story lol.

 

[ulaoulao]

Yes, like Johno said, the single most confusing thing are the games. You can make a copy if you own it, you can play it with an emulator if you own it, but downloading or possessing a rom that you have not bought is like having a CD you have not bought. Will the police come to our house, no probably not. Will your ISP cancel you for hosting a rom, maybe, will you get caught downloading then, more then likely not. As long as you understand the law, you only have yourself to blame.

 

[Lefteris_D]

It's all down to local legislation, everywhere though what is common is the distribution of copyrighted code. Example: this is why no Playstation emulator distribution includes BIOS files.

 

[ulaoulao]

Good point, lots of people don't understand that a bios is a copy of the console code, thus same as a rom. And just to add, some emulators(most) will not work without a bios because it allows one to play games on the emulator without really owning the console. This is beatable in most courts but worth mentioning.