By emulating a computer system or game, you are effectively reproducing a trademark and, without permission, that is an infringement of intellectual property rights. Clear argues that many of these games are no longer commercially available, that many of the software houses have shut down and the programmers themselves are often keen to have people continue to use their games. One pro-emulation site lists 50 programmers which it claims have allowed use of their games through emulators. Ian Bell, who co-wrote the classic Elite game on the BBC Micro with David Braben, runs a website with versions of the game available for download. And Jeff Minter, a programmer on the Commodore 64 and Atari ST computers, has also waived his copyright on old games.
Copying is no different from any other crime.
Just because we are in the digital age doesn't mean that things are up for grabs. But he conceded that where copyright had been waived then there was no crime. Websites found to be infringing copyright are shut down. Despite the age of these games, one website boasted that more than 2,000,000 games had been downloaded in just two months. Another site, World of Spectrum, claims 60,000 games are downloaded each day.