You’ve probably seen the raging debate among gaming enthusiasts: emulation “right or wrong?” This video essay aims to explore, in detail, the morality of emu…

  • deejay4am@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    How is passing new laws going to magically detect and erase all the PSX, SNES, MAME, etc ROMs that I play offline from my computer?

    By making laws that say it is ok to arrest/jail/fine you for having them. What we need are laws that say “this activity is ok, because these products are no longer worth anything to companies”

    Plus, emulation itself is not and cannot be illegal, barring a complete redesign of intellectual property law from its very foundation. Games themselves, BIOSes and encryption keys are protected, but an emulator is, in rough terms, “something that achieves the same result through different means”, and if that could be made illegal, then someone could patent the hammer and you’d have to pay a fine for nailing two things together with a rock.

    Ancient Luddite politicians will say it’s ridiculous to compare software to hammers, then they will call the internet a series of tubes, throw snow on the US House floor, and pay the Pentagon $40k for a hammer.