your legal roms!

[THANAMELESS]

i was wondering if anyone had legal rom site's. this contains homebrews site's wich don't have any copyright infrigment material. as a lot of people think al roms ar illegal, and im always searching for alternative's i was wondering if anyone knew a good site.

here's one to start of:
http://www.pdroms.de/

[alcoatjez]

http://mamedev.org/roms/

[retroguiden]

I know of a few sites that *claim' they don't host any copyrighted material. But they also seem to be deleting games *if* a copyright holder says so, (basically, they intend to be legal but admit soem copyrighted material might slip through) so I'm not sure I can post the links here.

[alcoatjez]

That's funny. They don't have any copyrighted material, so how can there be copyright holders for that material
Better no to post, I think

[onewecallgod]

I know of a few sites that *claim' they don't host any copyrighted material. But they also seem to be deleting games *if* a copyright holder says so, (basically, they intend to be legal but admit soem copyrighted material might slip through) so I'm not sure I can post the links here.

I think I'm going to change the title to homebrew rather legal.

[Robert]

when?

homebrew, public domain, whatever...
those roms at mamedev aren't homebrew.

[THANAMELESS]

That's funny. They don't have any copyrighted material, so how can there be copyright holders for that material
Better no to post, I think

that isn't a problem, on pdroms the same happens, but its because of copying. in these days people make a lot of direct copies of tetris (for example) these site's block the contens until they have a message with the statement of the tetris company that they have the right to produce that game. if nothing like that comes, you aren't able to download it.

[retroguiden]

That's funny. They don't have any copyrighted material, so how can there be copyright holders for that material
Better no to post, I think

Don't let my bad english confuse you. And as I said

basically, they intend to be legal but admit soem copyrighted material might slip through

This means that either the owner of the material has set it free (public domain) or have given them authority to host it for free download under certain terms. In the last case there is still a copyright holder, see?

[FatTrucker]

Yep World of Spectrum among others do this. They've approached most of the copyright owners for the roms they host and do so with their permission.

[Zach]

Linking to a site that has a clearly stated goal of offering games that are not subject to copyright law, or have had their copyright waved by the author, is allowed so long as they don't BLATANTLY appear to be hosting known copyrighted material.. i.e Youtube has tons of stuff not subjected to copyright but can't police copyrighted content that comes up until they are notified, and because of the sheer amount of users uploading stuff.

So just like we don't have a problem with Youtube, I think it is safe to say we don't have a problem with free sites, that do not appear to be hosting blatantly illegal software.

But a warning to anyone who read this.. This statement is not a license to slap any old link up on the forums. Having one or two copyright free pieces of software on a site otherwise hosting illegal content does NOT qualify as a valid link within the Forum Rules and we will not tolerate anyone splitting hairs or pushing the limit with their linkage. You will be disciplined harshly, including the possibility of instant long period bans for standing members who should know better. And remember the linking to a site that links to rom distributers factor IS in effect and enforced at Moderator or Admin discretion.

That being said, everyone feel free to share links like Thanameless has posted.