Can't Talk About

[Guest]

 

I tried browsing the rules, and Forum information but I didn't see any "Don't talk about____" sections.

 

I'm aware that OSX on computers that aren't made by apple are not allowed to be discussed, however I didn't see any specific rules about it in the rules section.

Is there a section that discusses what you can't post about?

 

I only saw general rules like be nice, don't send personal information, don't be mean.

 

I was going to make a reply in a topic stating how Emulators are viable, but there wasn't any specific rule about it, so I wasn't sure. 

 

Is there no section for "Don't talk about____" including things like piracy, pornographic material, hackintosh, and whatever else is against the rules. 

 

TL;DR:

I wanted to talk about Emulators, but there's no specific thread stating what you cannot talk about on the forum. 

 

Following quotes are all the rules I could find and I could only find rules within "Community Standards":

Spoiler

Quote

Generally speaking, as long as the following rules are met you should never find yourself subject to disciplinary action:

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Spoiler

Quote

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[RadiatingLight]

it's in this section:

 

"

Talking about piracy in general, broad details, is acceptable however the posting or discussing pirated/hacked/cracked or otherwise nefariously obtained content is not. This includes Windows content, games, hackintosh, etc. Also discussions regarding ways to avoid or block legitimately installed monitoring/tracking software or the like is also not allowed.

"

 

not as clear as it could be, and IMO it should be a bit clearer, but it's there.

[manikyath]

i think its mostly a thing based on common sense in applying law.

 

hackintosh and emulators are a legal greyzone (and in some cases, blatant piracy), its a bit of a matter of "you can acknowledge the idea, but dont talk about where to get the vague stuff"

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

Talking about piracy in general, broad details, is acceptable however the posting or discussing pirated/hacked/cracked or otherwise nefariously obtained content is not. This includes Windows content, games, hackintosh, etc. Also discussions regarding ways to avoid or block legitimately installed monitoring/tracking software or the like is also not allowed.

That's pretty much it. Hackintosh is mentioned in there. Not posting pornography is the second bullet point in community standards. 

 

Talking about emulators on their own is fine, as they don't break any laws. Just as talking about torrents is fine, as torrenting is not illegal. The issue comes with the actual content, such as the games you may play with an emulator or the content you may download via torrent. Stay clear of discussing pirated content and you're fine. 

[SquintyG33Rs]

it's a fight club situation. you do not talk about it. and that means YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT IT

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i think its mostly a thing based on common sense in applying law.

 

hackintosh and emulators are a legal greyzone (and in some cases, blatant piracy), its a bit of a matter of "you can acknowledge the idea, but dont talk about where to get the vague stuff"

Emulators don't break any laws or agreements on their own, it's not really a grey area, just like torrenting isn't. It's just something very strongly associated with illegal content, though emulators themselves are perfectly legal. 

[manikyath]

Just now, Oshino Shinobu said:

Emulators don't break any laws or agreements on their own, it's not really a grey area, just like torrenting isn't. It's just something very strongly associated with illegal content, though emulators themselves are perfectly legal. 

some emulators imply aquiring illigetimate copies of a game, for example dolphin emulator cant run the original disks.

[kirashi]

Talking about the technologies themselves should be OK, as torrenting, emulation, and installing OSX are legal things to do when you have the rights to do said things. It's when someone explicitly says "How do I install OSX on this custom built PC" or "I downloaded a bunch of ROMs from XYZ and need help getting them to work properly" that we kind of can't comment on, since both of those examples violate a EULA and imply blatant piracy without an explanation of how the ROMs were acquired.

 

Now, if you have an older Core 2 Duo / Xeon MacPro tower PC with an upgraded GPU that you're trying to dual boot on, we can certainly talk about that, since you're trying to install OSX on legit Apple hardware. Same goes if having trouble running dumped game ROMs from game carts your physically own, or created ISOs of game discs you legally own for Dolphin, for instance. We just can't talk about anything that could constitute piracy or questionably legal ways of acquiring this content.

 

Emulation and torrenting are just technologies - alone they are not even close to being an "illegal" topic to discuss. (Bear in mind that laws vary country to country, so what might be legal/illegal in Canada/USA might not/be in your country.)

Remember, it's not about <size>; it's how you use it.  

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

some emulators imply aquiring illigetimate copies of a game, for example dolphin emulator cant run the original disks.

I don't disagree with that. Emulators are almost always used for playing illegitimate versions of games, but it doesn't mean they have to be used for that. The emulator itself doesn't break any law as long as it doesn't come with illegal content, even if it can facilitate it (drawing parallels with torrenting again). Perfectly legal games can be played using emulators, in which case no laws are being broken at all. 

 

It may be considered a grey area due to them basically being synonymous with pirated/illegitimate games, though they aren't necessarily used for that. 

[SquintyG33Rs]

13 minutes ago, manikyath said:

some emulators imply aquiring illigetimate copies of a game, for example dolphin emulator cant run the original disks.

no it can't because the disk themselves have DRM that prevent anything but the wii hardware to read it. so it's a windows issue not an emulator limitation. you just can't read the disks in a dvd player

[manikyath]

Just now, SquintyG33Rs said:

no it can't because the disk themselves have DRM that prevent anything but the wii hardware to read it. so it's a windows issue not an emulator limitation. you just can't read the disks in a dvd player

in other words, you cant read original disks

[SquintyG33Rs]

Just now, manikyath said:

in other words, you cant read original disks

yeah but dumping roms is done with the wii hardware. or any other hardware you were trying to get games for. usually through a custom OS using an exploit. and in a sense that void warranties but it's not illegal. especially now with "right to repair" bills getting passed. if i'm allowed to use hardware i bought however i want i can dumb roms with it. even if nintendo will ban that wii from the online stuff.

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, RadiatingLight said:

snip

 

18 minutes ago, manikyath said:

snip

 

16 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

snip

 

14 minutes ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

snip

 

7 minutes ago, kirashi said:

snip

 

Makes sense. I was mostly concerned with a link to a place where there is a collection of all the things you cannot talk about, however for my specific circumstance in saying Emulation is something you can do, but teaching someone how to do it would be against the rules. 

[SquintyG33Rs]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

 

Makes sense. I was mostly concerned with a link to a place where there is a collection of all the things you cannot talk about, however for my specific circumstance in saying Emulation is something you can do, but teaching someone how to do it would be against the rules. 

is teaching somebody to dumb roms not permitted then here?

[kirashi]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

is teaching somebody to dumb roms not permitted then here?

If they have the original game cartridges and hardware to dump the ROMs themselves, then I see nothing wrong with it, since it's the same as making a backup copy of a DVD or VHS tape, which is 100% legal for personal use in Canada.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, SquintyG33Rs said:

is teaching somebody to dumb roms not permitted then here?

Um.... Depends what the Roms consist of?

idk lol. 

Teaching someone how to upload a file to google drive shouldn't be against the rules. 

[LogicalDrm]

9 hours ago, kirashi said:

If they have the original game cartridges and hardware to dump the ROMs themselves, then I see nothing wrong with it, since it's the same as making a backup copy of a DVD or VHS tape, which is 100% legal for personal use in Canada.

...And in US its mainly against the "law" or so some users here claim. Which makes that whole subject bit more grey area than what it should. My take is that if process requires some extra DRM breaking, its against the rules. But if its about using some commonly available tool (like MakeMKV or Handbrake for discs), I don't see issue.

 

@fpo, would you mind putting CS quotes in spoilers? The whole content is accessible from top bar on desktop anyway and you really haven't cut any parts, just pasted it as whole.

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

...And in US its mainly against the "law" or so some users here claim. Which makes that whole subject bit more grey area than what it should. My take is that if process requires some extra DRM breaking, its against the rules. But if its about using some commonly available tool (like MakeMKV or Handbrake for discs), I don't see issue.

 

@fpo, would you mind putting CS quotes in spoilers? The whole content is accessible from top bar on desktop anyway and you really haven't cut any parts, just pasted it as whole.

sorry, I thought quotes were closable. I'll do that