is downloading a rom of a game i own illegal?

[SpyGuyB]

I know downloading roms is illegal, but I own this game, so is it illegal or is it a legal grey area?

[Kanna]

It's not your own copy you are using so it's technically illegal

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, SpyGuyB said:

I know downloading roms is illegal

You really answered your own question here. The law doesn't care if you own it already or not. 

[da na]

It's technically illegal but the FBI won't break your door down.

[WhitetailAni]

8 minutes ago, Mel0nMan said:

It's technically illegal but the FBI won't break your door down.

You might get a CnD letter though. At least I did when I downloaded 3D World and Mario Maker 1.

They didn't care about NES and SNES games though.

[Kanna]

Just now, FakeKGB said:

You might get a CnD letter though. At least I did when I downloaded 3D World and Mario Maker 1.

They didn't care about NES and SNES games though.

ayoo sus discussing

[Helpful Tech Witch]

It's a grey area 

Technically it's illegal, but really, you own a licence to use that game, you probably won't get a cnd.

16 minutes ago, FakeKGB said:

You might get a CnD letter though. At least I did when I downloaded 3D World and Mario Maker 1.

They didn't care about NES and SNES games though.

Huh.

This is why you are very careful and live in an area with a good ISP that doesnt look at what what I'm doing

I've done.... A lot of piracy, never gotten a cnd. Nintendo consoles, Sony, pic games of all sorts, never once gotten one.

So either those shady Reddit links to gdrive and mega are cnd proof, I'm lucky, or my ISP actually isnt looking at my activity at all

[tikker]

7 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Technically it's illegal, but really, you own a licence to use that game, you probably won't get a cnd.

Wouldn't it be the opposite, as in you probably will get a CnD? They don't check if you have a license, all they see is you pirating a game. The reason for the gray area (as I know it), is because our laws (mine at least) allow you to make or have a copy for home use. That does not mean you are allowed to pirate the game. Movies had/have this same problem. A home-use copy is allowed, breaking the copy encryption not.

[Kisai]

39 minutes ago, SpyGuyB said:

I know downloading roms is illegal, but I own this game, so is it illegal or is it a legal grey area?

 

Reverse the question.

 

Is it illegal to make a copy of a game you do not physically have. When games went digital, this went sideways because digital copy requires no ripping or modification to make a backup. If you download something on steam, and copy your steam library to an external drive and play it on another pc, as long as you have't done something to remove the Steam requirement it's still the same copy.

 

With games that are on cartridges, there are ways of copying the cartridge with low-effort devices such as Mini NT/Super NT/Mega SG, etc there are no such devices for game devices produced after 1993. So GBA, DS/DSi, 3DS, Switch, *unless downloaded to SD card originally* can not legitimately be copied by the vast majority of people.

 

So in a court of law if you were asked "how did you make this copy", if it was not in a digital copy already, and you do not possess the hardware to make the copy, you're in trouble. The only way to have acquired the game is illegally. EVEN IF YOU OWN THE PHYSICAL GAME. It's a slam dunk for copyright lawyers.

 

Now, before we go off into grey areas, not all 8-bit/16-bit era cartridges are physical-only. It is possible to buy the games off on the Wii or Wii U. It's possible to acquire the rom files for various square, disney and sega games off steam from the authorized source and move them from the packaged emulator/game-wrapper and stick them in an emulator of your choice. That's legal, but it's more effort than just finding it on the internet.

 

Likewise, the NES Mini and SNES Mini were a little weak and people were able to pull the games off those devices as well. So it is possible in some cases to make your own backup if you have the game on a device that has USB port/SD-Card and can just tell the device to make the copy without doing much of anything.

 

Now when we talk about edge cases, what can you do with the backup?

a) Don't use emulators and stream. It's against the Terms of Service for Twitch and Youtube to play games you don't own, which includes modifications of such games. You're effectively ratting yourself out. Play it on the original device you bought the game for.

b) There is situation where if you dump the game yourself and apply a language patch, thus creating a game that is neither the original nor one that is actually available, where you can play it privately and basically be clear, since it can't be proven where the source dump came from, since there is no original game in that language. However if you were to stream it, it would almost certainly get you in trouble if the game was later released in that language legitimately.

 

So in short, it's illegal to acquire a game you did not purchase, and that can be proven, usually by looking at your browser history, and honey-potted download sites. Legitimate ways of making backups are usually as expensive as buying the game 10-20 times, so most of the time people who own flash cart devices and copier devices don't own all the games they have, and they can get nailed for hundreds of copyright infringements. 

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

7 minutes ago, tikker said:

Wouldn't it be the opposite, as in you probably will get a CnD? They don't check if you have a license, all they see is you pirating a game. The reason for the gray area (as I know it), is because our laws (mine at least) allow you to make or have a copy for home use. That does not mean you are allowed to pirate the game. Movies had/have this same problem. A home-use copy is allowed, breaking the copy encryption not.

I meant you probably won't get a cnd for diffrent reasons

 

 

[da na]

2 hours ago, FakeKGB said:

You might get a CnD letter though. At least I did when I downloaded 3D World and Mario Maker 1.

They didn't care about NES and SNES games though.

Wait really...? If so that's kinda creepy that those downloads are being monitored... I've downloaded a gameboy rom for an emulator and I guess they don't care about that either.

[da na]

2 hours ago, tikker said:

Wouldn't it be the opposite, as in you probably will get a CnD? They don't check if you have a license, all they see is you pirating a game. The reason for the gray area (as I know it), is because our laws (mine at least) allow you to make or have a copy for home use. That does not mean you are allowed to pirate the game. Movies had/have this same problem. A home-use copy is allowed, breaking the copy encryption not.

Yeah, like copying CDs/DVDs. There's a reason I've got 2 ODDs in my case - copying. It's legal to do as long as I don't sell them.

[Blue4130]

On 7/18/2021 at 6:30 AM, SpyGuyB said:

I know downloading roms is illegal, but I own this game, so is it illegal or is it a legal grey area?

In canada you can make a backup of it. So if you have the hardware to dump the rom, it's fine. Downloading it is questionable.