Is this illegal?

[aceboy44]

Installing emulators on a PSP, is it legal or illegal?

[ghosstt]

Using emulators is 100% legal. It just depends on what you are using it for. (Much like the issue with using a torrent program) If you play all home-brew games (as in free independent games) its legal, but downloading the ROMs of existing published games and playing those, well thats questionable. (Though thought of as illegal)

[aceboy44]

So if someone here asks for emulators for PS1, SNES, and Sega for a PSP, could he get arrested for it?

[bicostp]

Emulators are not illegal.
ROMs of commercial games are illegal.
ROMs of homebrew games (written by hobbyists), and games whose publishers have released them for free distribution are not illegal.
ROMs of games whose developers have gone out of business or otherwise disappeared with no other company claiming the rights are questionable.

Just install the emulators and leave it to the customer to find the games themselves. If you really need to include a couple games just to prove they work (or do a benchmark), go to http://www.pdroms.de/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and download some public domain games.

[aceboy44]

Emulators are not illegal.
ROMs of commercial games are illegal.

Then nvm

[jdmlight]

ROMs of commercial games are illegal.

Actually, I thought if you ripped the game yourself from a cartridge/disc you own, it wasn't illegal. I could be wrong though.

(not that I particularly care, I like first-party hardware too much to bother with emulators )

[eagle5953]

As I understand it, it is legal to make a legitimate "backup copy" for yourself. At the same time, it is illegal to circumvent the copy protections to do so.

If that sounds contradictory, it is.

[nevermind1534]

Making backups probably isn't illegal in Kuwait. The US is the only country that I know of where it is illegal. Even ones you don't own might be legal. Check with your local laws and don't discuss that on this US-hosted forum, though.