Downloading Retro Video Games For Free
If it is a civil offence then it should be illegal as well . I am having trouble understanding this statement that “ piracy for personal use is not considered illegal. But it is still considered a “civil offence” “. If something is not illegal then no civil offence can be brought against it. Civil offence can only be brought against a party when plaintiff claims something illegal has been committed by the defendant. It is my understanding that such civil suits could be brought under some other assumptions e.g. plaintiff would claim that some conditions of fair usage policy were not fulfilled by the defendant or were breached somehow, hence resulting in infringement of their copyrights etc. __ But if my legal understanding of the matter is wrong and what is mentioned above in your reply is correct then definitely such violation tantamounts to sin ( if it is a civil offence ).
Hmm okay how about if I download the Roms which is a copyright violation, and in essence ethically bad as it is using their product for free which otherwise people had once paid for (but arguably justified given that there is no way to compensate the production company) but then if and when those games reappear on the online store I decide to buy them to compensate them for ROM download (does not nullify copyright violation which I think is just unreasonable when it comes to the whole personal use situation, but in essence ethically speaking nullifys me taking those roms for free given the condition that those ROMs are for my own personal use only and I solemnly swear that I won’t distribute them to anyone else)? Also to add another aspect here, we are not talking about a physical object but rather a computer file which does not really have any intrinsic value as it can be copied as many times with the touch on a button.
Problem is original games cost an arm and a leg and very realistically, the author, Nintendo, does not benefit from them 1 cent. Besides it’s available at sources considered as legitimate, Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba etc.
Probably write directly to Nintendo to sort out what typa license applies.