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ROM legality and dumping (mame - beatmania)

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Turnarcades:

It's one of those grey areas that have evolved over the years. When you buy a game, you only buy the licence to own and use one game. I think in the past you had the right to backup your own media and to re-use in it's original context in the event of failure (ie, re-flashing chips that have been damaged on an original PCB). However, if you notice the footnotes on most media these days, (CD's, DVD's, Music etc.), most of them say "unauthorised lending, distribution or duplication of the copyright material is prohibited", whereas a lot just use to read "illegal borrowing, duplication or broadcasting is prosecutable".

Make of this what you will. Personally I take it to mean that they are acknowledging new methods of supposed piracy, but are not protected officially against it, so instead only hint at the grey area of modern duplication methods and possible consequences.

But that's just me...... :laugh:

Jdurg:


--- Quote from: saint on February 24, 2008, 08:59:38 pm ---The answer to that question is not yes. It's not necessarily no. As far as I know the question has never been legally defined nor addressed by the courts. You likely have a legal right to backup media you own (and arcade boards and their contents could arguably be considered media). However, I've not seen that right defined or expanded to include making a copy for use in different hardware.

Now - morally I think you're fine, assuming only one copy of the material will be in use at one time with the same owner. Legally however, I don't think there is any clear answer.

--- saint


--- End quote ---

I'm not going to post it here since it takes a good few hours to read through every part of the DMCA, but techincally it is illegal to make a copy of your software and run it on a different machine.  You are allowed to make backups and that is not being questioned.  The backup is only legally able to be used if the original hardware is no longer operable and can not be replaced without any extraneous efforts.  E.G. if you have an arcade PCB that uses parts which are no longer in existance and you therefore can't replace the broken parts without going through extreme efforts, you are allowed to use your backup on a different machine in order to play it.

If you copy a hard drive image from an arcade game and then play it on a computer even though the arcade game is still working, then you "technically" are braking the law. 

Now, as has been pointed out MANY times before, the actual legality of this has never truly been defined.  Mostly because companies will never know if you back up something you own and use it on a different machine.

Also, the idea that you can legally play your own ROMs that you've dumped from your PCBs is not exactly true according to the DMCA.  The reason is that the PCBs still work and therefore you can play the games on your PCB AND your computer at the same time, even though you only purchased the "rights" to one copy of those games.  By making a back-up and playing that as well, you are technically using "two" copies of the game even though you only paid for one. 

AGAIN, this is all the legal mumbo-jumbo according to the DMCA.  In reality, you're not going to wind up in jail for making a back-up of your HDD and using it on your computer unless you advertise it in a local newspaper and start charging people to use it.   ;D

johnperkins21:


--- Quote from: Jdurg on February 25, 2008, 10:11:28 am ---I'm not going to post it here since it takes a good few hours to read through every part of the DMCA, but techincally it is illegal to make a copy of your software and run it on a different machine.  You are allowed to make backups and that is not being questioned.  The backup is only legally able to be used if the original hardware is no longer operable and can not be replaced without any extraneous efforts.  E.G. if you have an arcade PCB that uses parts which are no longer in existance and you therefore can't replace the broken parts without going through extreme efforts, you are allowed to use your backup on a different machine in order to play it.

--- End quote ---

You're actually misrepresenting the DMCA. In the US at least, we all have the right to make backup copies of our software. What the DMCA says is that we can not circumvent the copy protections implemented to do so. If there is no copy protection that keeps you from simply making a backup, then you're in the clear. Now I don't know what sort of methods are used to make a dump of the ROM, but if you're not circumventing the copy protection you're in the clear to make a backup.

As far as the rest of your statement is concerned you're absolutely right. There's really no precedent to say what is and isn't legal in this case. More than likely, it would illegal for you to play your ROMs on any hardware other than the original, but as long as you aren't distributing it and are only using it for your private use, you can use it with a clear conscience.

ark_ader:


--- Quote from: johnperkins21 on February 25, 2008, 01:48:22 pm ---
--- Quote from: Jdurg on February 25, 2008, 10:11:28 am ---I'm not going to post it here since it takes a good few hours to read through every part of the DMCA, but techincally it is illegal to make a copy of your software and run it on a different machine.  You are allowed to make backups and that is not being questioned.  The backup is only legally able to be used if the original hardware is no longer operable and can not be replaced without any extraneous efforts.  E.G. if you have an arcade PCB that uses parts which are no longer in existance and you therefore can't replace the broken parts without going through extreme efforts, you are allowed to use your backup on a different machine in order to play it.

--- End quote ---

You're actually misrepresenting the DMCA. In the US at least, we all have the right to make backup copies of our software. What the DMCA says is that we can not circumvent the copy protections implemented to do so. If there is no copy protection that keeps you from simply making a backup, then you're in the clear. Now I don't know what sort of methods are used to make a dump of the ROM, but if you're not circumventing the copy protection you're in the clear to make a backup.

As far as the rest of your statement is concerned you're absolutely right. There's really no precedent to say what is and isn't legal in this case. More than likely, it would illegal for you to play your ROMs on any hardware other than the original, but as long as you aren't distributing it and are only using it for your private use, you can use it with a clear conscience.

--- End quote ---

I agree its kak.  If you OWN the original hardware and you cannot go back to the original manufacturers to obtain a copy of the software regardless of media, you are allowed to use the copy from another source, as long as you can verify that you own the original game, boards etc.

This is more a civil court argument from the original manufacturers or copyright owner position, than a legal argument leading to piracy.

This is very different to others claiming to have the right to use mame sets, who used to have the original boards. 

While we are on the subject - how does the roms get passed onto the public in the first place?

I have a XDA Orbit Pocket PC.  My rom data gets corrupted.  My phone doesn't work.  My insurance is out and I own the phone.  I can download the ROM OS from O2 and get my phone working again.  Am I breaking the DMCA for doing this?  Nope.   Same thing.

SavannahLion:

Nintendo(?) did argue in court that the legal backup issue in copyrights related to media that were considered volatile at the time. In other words, floppy disks necessitated backups whereas solid state cartridges did not. That precedence could be leveraged to argue that solid state circuitry, disc media, and hard drives are considered non-volatile media. I suppose this precedence could possibly be discarded if it's proven to the courts that such media is volatile but over a longer period of time.

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