I was just wondering if anyone knew a host that allows emulation and roms.
Thanks

Most don't because ROMS are generally illegal. And, some Emulators have questionable legallity.

You probably think of other contents to put for your site that is legal..

All NES & older system ROMs are legal. Some SNES are legal you will have to check will Nintendo to see which are.

If you check with Nintendo you will find they have a 75 year copyright on all there video games. Therefore even you NES games are ilegal. IDSA and Nintendo have page's with information if you want I can dig them up for you.

Yep, copyrights in the U.S. last a long time.

I was always under the impression that they were not illegal as they are easy to get and not really "hidden" away as warez are alot of times.. But now that I think about it I highly doubt that would be legal as companies want to milk the cow as long as possible.. usually a lifetime..

You are allowed to make personal
backups. That's how they skate by posting them.
As long as they post a warning, they claim it's not THEIR fault if someone
downloads them. :rolleyes:

What about amiga stuff :D

I was just wondering how all these other emulation sites can find hosts for emulation and roms. And I dont think they host it from their own computer, because with regular dsl or cable modem, the upstream is like 128kbps which is only 16 kilobytes per second, so if someone did download of me, the fastest it would go is 16 kilobytes per second!
So if these guys did do it off their computer, the must have something like t1 or t3! and there is no way someone would pay that much just to host an emulation site.

Hey bags, I didnt really understand what u meant, about making personal backups. So could you please explain it a bit more please. Thanks.

Some of the ROM sites, use dedicated servers and such much like the big Warez sites.

BTW: Some ROMS are legal, but not many.

Originally posted by JTY

BTW: Some ROMS are legal, but not many.

Practically the only ROMs that are legal are the ones developed specifically for the emulator by programmers with too much time on their hands ;) i.e. not real games

Hey bags, I didnt really understand what u meant, about making personal backups. So could you please explain it a bit more please. Thanks.

From what I've read, it's like software,
you are allowed to make a backup copy
but only for your personal use (the original owner). So copying a ROM allows you to backup the code in the ROM... so in the event your ROM gets
trashed, you can burn another ROM with the code and your back in business. OF course, that's not what everyone does...they use the code in emulators and spread it around...illegal!
:)

Commercial roms ARE illegal. Are you entitled to one backup? Yes, but downloading it from the internet is not a legal way of obtaining the backup. Think about it, you make a backup with a backup machine, that's one copy. You upload it to a webserver, you've now made 2 copies. That in itself is illegal.

Emulators? Yes, they are legal. Public Domain ROMS? Legal as well. Commercial Roms? Big no-no.

Originally posted by bags
You are allowed to make personal
backups. That's how they skate by posting them.
As long as they post a warning, they claim it's not THEIR fault if someone
downloads them. :rolleyes:

Those disclaimers mean nothing. You expect the case the stand up in court for those who put up files for download and try to claim it´s only for backup purposes?

Remember RIAA vs. Napster? So what Napster had disclaimers warning trading copyrighted files are not permitted on Napster. Did Napster take steps to protect against this?

Do webmasters take steps to protect their ''Backups''? No.

Nintendo's position on the matter:

Questions about ROMs and Emulation (http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html#what%20are%20ROMs)