DMCA, says you can play roms legally

[Sparkfist]

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20031029-3040.html

"Apperently if the computer/videogame console is no longer manufatured, or the format used to play the software is obsolite."

I have to say this is the first thing about the DMCA that doesnt shaft fair-play I've read/heard of.

[Dark Savant0]

It also says that if it is no longer manufactured, if it is still available, then it is not obsolete. Since we can still get the systems from ebay and used videogame stores, then the roms are not legal. Sorry.

[G-force]

(3) Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Which means used game stores and ebay don't apply. Only brand new stuff that is still being comercially sold is not obsolete.

[MM007]

cool beans...though if a stink shows up, I can see people arguing for a year in court over the meaning of "commercial". ^^*

[MilkMonster]

does that mean that rule #8 dosent exist any more

[gannon]

I'd assume you still have to own the games to allow you to have backups of them, so no, the rule still stands.

[teraflop122]

So, we still can't discuss roms, even though the vast majority of them are now perfectly legal?

[xxxeagle]

Yeah we should be able to discuss them becuase it doesent say that you have to own a copy in the article. Also I agree with this article you should be able to download old games becuase its not like nintendo makes a profit off of any of the old snes titles anymore (except when the revo comes out) so you should be able to download them. But what about when the Revolution comes out becuause they are releasing all the old games technically the original system it came out on isn't there anymore but they are coming out for the new one so is it still legal?

[MilkMonster]

but arent all of the nintendo games made by nintendo be free on the rev.

[Joes2Silly]

sweet, now I dont have to hide my ROMs

[collingall2005]

I Don't think so MilkMonster, Nintendo has said that you have to buy them from their site to be played on the REV. However, someone will find a way to transfer them to a REV someday,
Legal or not is up to Nintendo to decide because they one the copyrights to all of their games, and as far as they are concerned it is illegal to own the Roms of their games

[gannon]

Yeah we should be able to discuss them becuase it doesent say that you have to own a copy in the article.

These 4 "exceptions" are only saying that they don't count in the DMCA, they still fall under standard copyright ruling and a lot of older games' copyrights haven't expired.

[soundwave]

Maybe someone should list all the games who's copyrights have expired, so we can talk about those all we want.

[Reaperman@home]

for works published by a corporation, copyright expires 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation--whichever comes first. there are a couple odd exceptions for foreign copyright, but none that I really think will provide 'free stuff'

because of this, I suspect that the list of expired copyrights on video games would be rather short. This isn't to say the owner couldn't provide some form of free distribution agreement for its own material. many independant authors do that now. Jeff Minter, for example.

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/traini ... htterm.pdf

[Conn]

I think videogames have copyright protection for 25 years- so anything pre-NES is legal, but post-NES is illegal.