Topic: Legal question about emulation

[CaptainCPS]

Hi there everyone ^^, ... I was thinking recently about a situation and if it would be legal or not, so that's why Im posting this, so others can comment about what they think too...

My question is: Is it legal to buy a arcade game board (Ex. MvsC, MSlug, etc) and having paid those, can I make copies of the ROMs in them to do a compilation of all in a original Arcade machine that works not with coins but with tickets or something like that (tickets have to be bought to play) (maybe something like a game selection screen)?...of course, in the compilation would be only the games that I bought.

would that be legal? I mean, ...buy... do a copy of my property and modify it for my business...is that legal?

btw, this is not a real case just something that I was thinking

SeeYaa!

[iq_132]

I don't think a compilation would be legal.  Most copyrights allow for backups so that you can restore a dead/broken board.  Dumping the ROMs and then running them on another board is in very fuzzy territory.  If the roms are copy protected (encrypted), then it is definitely illegal (as breaking copy protections is illegal). And last, but not least, you would have to write your own emulator from scratch for the compilation.  AFAIK, all current NeoGeo emulators have some licensing clause stating that they cannot be used commercially.

But, of course, I'm not lawyer, and most of these laws are only applicable to the USA.

[CaptainCPS]

ThanX IQ for the reply  , I understood everything you pointed there, and yeah the emulator would have to be a new one with a different license and distributing limitations,... maybe to make this kind of business legal it would be necessary to have some type of agreement with the original companies that made the games, so maybe it can be possible to pay for the copies I made for commercial use, or something like that (sorry if I wrote some confusing stuff there lol  ).

I think it would be cool to find places with arcade machines that contain some kind of 'legal' compilations with classic games or games not available at all because they are too old and the current existent boards are in other hands (I know that there is MAME hehe [btw, FBA Rules as always lol ]  , but not everyone have a PC and not everyone knows about emulation). That kind of arcades are not released by the original companies like, Capcom, SNK, NAMCO or others, maybe some collections but they are console versions not arcade, and to find stuff like that it would be cool, I think.

Anyway, I posted all of this arcade stuff because it was something that I don't think is seen everyday. Maybe bootlegs but as I always said, bootlegs are other story... they are made for illegal use (and hacked/ modded with stuff ) most of the times, and the idea that I was talking would be a legal use, that if necessary it would be limited by the original companies owners of the copyright material if needed.

SeeYaa!