Topic: Are Hacked Roms Legal? (Read 188 times)

m4ca · « **on:** December 10, 2003, 12:06:00 AM »

ok i know a game made by some compony and like posting links and all that wold be banned from this board and all that.. but if someone modifies (hack) would that be ok?

im asking because i would like to know where to get some hacked snes games for my snes emulator, my cousin said his friend had a game where it was sonic, but instead of sonic it was mario... he said it was cool and i dont know where to get it.. where can i get modified games?

m4ca · « **Reply #1 on:** December 10, 2003, 12:21:00 AM »

hey dont u live in california? perhaps the area code 909 means
La Verne ?

Zero · « **Reply #2 on:** December 10, 2003, 12:30:00 AM »

Hacked roms are still illegal.

Morien · « **Reply #3 on:** December 10, 2003, 01:04:00 AM »

What you're describing is completley legal.
Here's why,
You said it's a snes rom, and just Sonic with Mario instead of Sonic. As Sonic was never released on snes (the closest to it was a hacked version of Speedy Gonzalous (spelling?) with Sonic in place of Speedy (which pardon my french, licked balls)) this would infer that your wanted game is a clone of Sonic, not a hacked version of it.
As for where to get it, I dunno. I generally steer clear of hacked/cloned/what-haveyou roms, as they generally (once more, pardon my french) lick balls. However, my guess would be to go to the source of where you found out about it. Get your cousing to email it to you or something.

Morien

Morien · « **Reply #4 on:** December 10, 2003, 01:19:00 AM »

BUT my dear Watson, you miss the key ingrediants to the mix! (sorry, I'm in a real smart arse mood tonite. My apologies)

Sonic was never released on Snes... NEVER. Genenis/Mega Drive/What-have-you code is NOT compatible with the Snes. So to have a version of Sonic, modified or not, on the Snes, it would have to be a clone. Clone's aren't illegal. Hell, if they were then there'd be no Doom clones (which is a good portion of the gaming industry) or Street Fighter clones (same as above).

Therefore, in my humble opinion, it is a clone, and thus, perfectly legal.

Morien

Edit: BTW, wasn't there a new legislation that made it so copyright on a digital product is void if the copyright holders are no longer providing said good on a currently used medium? Or the medium that it was provided on is no longer popularly used.

the_prof · « **Reply #5 on:** December 10, 2003, 06:20:00 AM »

Actually, this is a really interesting question. The game he is describing is called Somari and is for the NES not SNES. It's pretty much a ground up port of "Sonic the Hedgehog" but with Mario instead of Sonic. However, there is no reference ever made in the game to Sonic or any of the Sega properties (I think the graphical differentiation between 16-bit and 8-bit should compensate for any conflict anyway). I suppose the question of legality would fall upon the gameplay. Apparently, as evidenced in the recent Sega vs The Simpsons case it is possible to hold a patent on a videogame. So, the question then becomes does Sega own a *patent* (not copyright) on "Sonic the Hedgehog." I'm willing to bet no, seeing as how (except for the the standard small differentiations) Sonic is essentially just like the 20,000 other 2D platform titles out there.

Who is ripping off who? Is the player ripping off the pirates who ported the game? Yes, if it's a downloaded ROM, but they're pirates so what are they gonna do. Were the pirates ripping off Sega (legally)? Seemingly only if Sega owns a patent on "Sonic the Hedgehog." So therefore, the question of whether or not the player is ripping off Sega (legally) seems to fall into that same question of patent.

Anyway, there's so much gray area and bureaucratic red tape with this garbage I doubt we will ever really know.

Heet · « **Reply #6 on:** December 10, 2003, 06:28:00 AM »

Legal or illegal im still gonna visit i-mockery for the hell of it sometimes.

desertboy · « **Reply #7 on:** December 10, 2003, 07:41:00 AM »

A legal hacked rom using copyrighted material from one game in another.

Own both games and have the ability to rip the rom yourself
Have a program that extracts the graphics (Or whatever) from rom A
Patch rom B with graphics (After postprocessing if needed)

That would be legal in some countrys probably not America.

m4ca · « **Reply #8 on:** December 10, 2003, 12:15:00 PM »

so modified games are legal.. right? is there any other cool lookin modified games like that?

kvajnto · « **Reply #9 on:** December 10, 2003, 05:25:00 PM »

Sonic can be found running around on both Sega Master System and Game Gear as well. They could have ripped the sprites from there.

Zero · « **Reply #10 on:** December 10, 2003, 06:18:00 PM »

Doesn't matter if its ripped or not Mario is still copywriten, the colors and apperance a bit would have to change a bit. Anyhow I wouldnt worry about owning illegal roms anyhow unless you are trying to sell them.

m4ca · « **Reply #11 on:** December 10, 2003, 07:03:00 PM »

but it wouldnt rally be compyright.. i mean it is a ROM (not a reall game) and Mario (Nintendo's Guy) is only in levels that are in Sonic...

so in a way i dont see how it would be iligal.. but then again id on know so thats why i am asking...

AkumAPRIME · « **Reply #12 on:** December 10, 2003, 11:38:00 PM »

really really dense. If something is copyrighted, in order to use it legally, you must pay the copyright owner. Doesnt matter if you made the code yourself, or changed the M to a W on Mario, to make Wario ( hey that's a good idea, note to self...)

so if you see something that looks like some one elses, without their express permission, and a copyrights invloved. Most likely, a nono

ehb

CivX · « **Reply #13 on:** December 11, 2003, 05:06:00 AM »

QUOTE ({{909}} @ Dec 11 2003, 01:20 PM)

im gonna get a copy of one of the harry potter books and just edit it to say Barry Trotter instead of harry potter, then its a book about barry so its legal..right?

Yeah man, it's legal because Barry Trotter was never in the books.

the_prof · « **Reply #14 on:** December 11, 2003, 06:09:00 AM »

QUOTE

im gonna get a copy of one of the harry potter books and just edit it to say Barry Trotter instead of harry potter, then its a book about barry so its legal..right?

But, if you totally rewrote the story of "Harry Potter" using a character named Barry Trotter and the story was just different enough to avoid issue (ie. Sixlets vs M & Ms or Disney's "Atlantis" vs the anime "Nadia"), it would be a case for the hypothetical courts to decide.

So it's not just something that looks like someone else's. If it's different enough, the case holds no ground. According to Princeton:

QUOTE

Originally, most of the computer industry assumed that only the program's underlying instructions were protected under copyright law but, beginning in the early 1980s, a series of lawsuits involving the video screens of game programs extended protections to the appearance of programs.

Now, "Somari" may have similar instructions to "Sonic the Hedgehog," but they cannot be exact due to the difference in code architecture and syntax, so that part of the definition is out. As to the appearance, a case could be made either way. On one hand the "Mario" character (who is not ever referred to as Mario) bears no signature 'M' on his cap during gameplay, has behavioral differences within the context of the game, the "ring collection" behaves differently, and he contains all new character animations. On the other hand, the level design bears an uncanny resemblance to those in "Sonic the Hedgehog," as do the majority of the enemies, and each level opens in a similar fashion.

I'm not necessarily sure it goes one way or another, I'm just feeling all "Devil's Advocate"-y.

Author Topic: Are Hacked Roms Legal? (Read 188 times)