Rom Sites (links)

[Weltall]

Second, I'm afraid that releasing old ROMs with the defense that the companies aren't making money off them any more isn't valid, especially now in the era of the GBA. Now they certainly are making money off old out of print games, money they could easily be deprived of if people decide not to buy the new game because they already downloaded the older version. Games like Final Fantasy 1-6, all the classic 2D Mario games, and various other assorted games from across the map, are all having money made off of them. N64 games too are being released all over again, thus games like Zelda OOT are hardly out of print. (True, Zelda OOT is right now a limited edition bonus disk, but do you honestly think Nintendo is stupid enough not to sell it seperatly after the preorder deal?)

Well, that may be the case with Nintendo and Sega, but what about companies that are defunct and no longer in the business? There are literally dozens of consoles that were released in the industry's first boom, many of them are extremely obscure, and none of them were made by companies who still participate in videogaming. It's an extreme rarity for games from those old systems to be re-released, and the rare titles on those consoles are not marketed in any way whatsoever. However, copyrights still protect these games, and for some reason these companies who no longer even make attempts to make a profit from their properties will still take the time to go after providers of ROMs of their games.

Even with Nintendo and Sega, the only games that will ever be re-released are the most popular ones of their day. The obscure and rare titles will never see the light of day again. It's for this reason that I think Nintendo is full of shit with their anti-emulation crusade, to say nothing of just how WRONG it is to charge $30 for indivual games that are miniscule in filesize and over a decade in age. I could see them having a case if they go after people trying to sell these ROMS for money, but you almost never see that, so frankly, I don't see what ROMS of games they no longer sell does to them, if they have no intention of making money off of them. It's technically stealing, but it's not as though Nintendo's losing money every time someone downloads a copy of Zelda II. It's not as though someone's actually removing stock from them, they're trading what they cannot buy.

Finally, if I remember correctly, you are entitled to possess ROMs of games you own. Even though Nintendo says otherwise, I don't believe the law agrees on that statement.