@SomeGuyWithAFace9
if something is legal, but a big company can bully you into submission by having more money and lawyers than you, then whos really deciding whats legal?
@arthurdurham
Copyright is one of the biggest abuses of our legal system. Really shows how often something's legality has little to do with what can be made litigious.
@dsproductions19
A quick note: copying for personal backup is perfectly legal as long as you don't sell or share the copy, the same as backing up music CDs in the early 2000s. Most people assume ROMs are always pirated since it used to require specific (and expensive) hardware, as well as often modifying the file afterward (like NES). This isn't as much of an issue for a while now, as many consoles can be hacked to make backups with just free software, and backup hardware these days can be as cheap as $10, but the assumption still stands.
@intraum
the watery fanfic disclaimer / emulator blurbs that you referenced are some of the funniest things about ~2000s era internet lol. i absolutely loved it when i'd come across a youtube video back in the day when the description would be "I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING". cracks me up every time
@ypob2007
“Pirating Nintendo isn’t a crime, it’s an obligation”
@NickWimpyNoodle
Know what’s ACTUALLY criminal? These game companies letting legacies of games die off forever
@pliable-head
The distinction between what was copyright infringement/illegal piracy/what have you and what wasn't is actually super interesting, thank you Jenna for this and also for acknowledging the wild ride of Gex
N/A
Jeez, that "bleem!" UI knocked the air out of my lungs and physically transported me back to my teenage years.
@ZoeBateman
legally speaking what I'm saying in this comment is a joke, but I think it's completely fine and good to download a copy of a game for emulation or otherwise if it's not available for purchase or available legitimately or easily anymore. emulation is great, and is also a good thing for kinda archiving things and keeping old stuff available to use
@RidireOiche
How many niche throwaway janky videogames that perhaps only a few hundred people ever played have now been lost to time due to a lack of readily accessible emulators. The kind of cheap weirdly enjoyable games only you seem to remember, from when you rented them those weekends someone else got there first and rented the only copy of the game you actually wanted and you couldn't go home empty handed so you had to rent something.
@MonochromeWench
Reverse engineering being legal is older than sega vs accolade, the original big lawsuit was ibm vs compaq, that established it was absolutely ok if you didn't copy code and is why the PC industry even exists today. Modern PCs are still based upon the efforts to reverse engineer the IBM 5170 AT in the 80s
@longbeing
My view on it is that if you cannot purchase the game from the publisher, it’s morally fine to emulate it, and I think copyright law should allow for this. Buying a physical copy would just give your money to a retailer (probably at a high markup) instead of the people who made it. (discontinued games with available remakes and/or remasters are tricky, since they blur the line between a re-release and a different game)
@KlooKloo
The real crime? Polygon firing Jenna today
@RobertDW1
Rockstar was so desperate for money they filed a lawsuit against Remedy. Remedy’s Logo doesn’t look anything like the Rockstar logo. And the crazy thing is Remedy is developing games for Rockstar.
@greenhowie
Sony had their own damn emulator and yet still copied an open-source project for the PSXmini. And could offer the entire PS1 back catalogue for digital sale on PC just like Metal Gear Solid is on GOG. They do not like to make financially logical decisions.
@chickensangwich97
Remember that this exact same IP chicanery, which artificially restricts access to games for profit purposes, is also applied to life-saving drugs and medical devices…
@xersys
Hilarious that the games crash of the 80s is blamed on third party unlicensed developers (indies) but the modern game market is only still around because of these indie developers.
@ed4165
Thank you for all of your hard work! The polygon team knows how to ask (and answer!!) some really neat questions.
@Sifeus
Polygon absolutely foolish to lay off Jenna
@bobbaggins403