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Lawsuit Threat Shuts Down ROM Downloads On Major Emulation Site 'EmuParadise' (arstechnica.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the cease-and-desist dept.

Following Nintendo's recent lawsuits against ROM sites LoveROMs and LoveRetro, a major ROM repository called EmuParadise announced it will preemptively cease providing downloadable versions of copyrighted classic games. While no lawsuits have been filed yet, the site's founder, MasJ, writes in an announcement post: "It's not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences. I cannot in good conscience risk the futures of our team members who have contributed to the site through the years. We run EmuParadise for the love of retro games and for you to be able to revisit those good times. Unfortunately, it's not possible right now to do so in a way that makes everyone happy and keeps us out of trouble." Ars Technica reports: EmuParadise will continue to operate as a repository for legal downloads of classic console emulators, as well as a database of information on thousands of classic games. "But you won't be able to get your games from here for now," as MasJ writes. Since founding EmuParadise in 2000, MasJ says EmuParadise has faced threatening letters, server shutdowns, and numerous DMCA takedown requests for individual games. Through it all, he says he was encouraged by "thousands of emails from people telling us how happy they've been to rediscover and even share their childhood with the next generations in their families."

7 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Torrent by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Shirley there is a torrent that contains all the emulation files for these early consoles. It can't be that big.

    1. Re:Torrent by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I downloaded that giant torrent and even had to find a third party program to unzip the damn thing. The one built into Windows would have taken days. The Stupid part is MAME never had long filename support so you have 50,000 roms all in 8.3 file format. You'll never know what any of them are without a GUI front end.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  2. Oh look, copyright holding culture hostage ... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Many of these ROMs are no longer even sold -- the original developer and publisher are LONG gone from the market.

    This is a classic case of copyright holding culture hostage due to greed.

    The fact that people WANT to download these old ROMs shows there is a demand, even if minor. The _financial_ value is INDEPENDENT of this.

    Can we stop trying to make everything about money and just let people enjoy the classics already instead of copyright holding every fucking thing of culture hostage?

    No one gives a fuck if some kid downloads a game that has been out of print for 20+ years except parasites, aka, lawyers.

    1. Re:Oh look, copyright holding culture hostage ... by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Can we stop trying to make everything about money and just let people enjoy the classics already instead of copyright holding every fucking thing of culture hostage?

      Apparently not. There are plenty of ways a government could fix this, but there isn't enough interest among voters to make this a ballot-deciding issue.

      I've seen a few proposals that wouldn't appear to facially violate the Berne Convention's prohibition of formalities:

      Property taxation People who refer to copyrights as "intellectual property" would love this: Starting 28 years after first publication, require each owner of copyright in any published work that is not available under a free or reasonable uniform-royalty nonexclusive license to pay a recurring tax. This tax would fund libraries. Infringement of copyright in a work with substantially delinquent "intellectual property tax" is forgivable, as bringing suit for infringement would amount to confessing to tax evasion. Eminent domain The government assesses the fair market value of a published work's copyright, and if citizens pay this amount to the government, the government acquires a nonexclusive license to the work under a compulsory purchase. Combining the two The copyright owner assesses the value of a published work's copyright and periodically pays a percentage of this as tax. A copyright owner has an incentive to value its copyrights accurately: not too high in order to decrease tax liability but not too low in order to keep the work from entering the publ^W eminent domain.
    2. Re:Oh look, copyright holding culture hostage ... by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Informative

      Wrong. By default, every creative work belongs to all people, to be freely copied and redistributed. "Intellectual property" is a temporary privilege granted under the notion that it would lead to the production of more works that would eventually return to the public domain. But if the premise is incorrect, and intellectual property does not contribute to the public domain, it has failed its sole purpose and must be outright abolished.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
  3. See cat, see bag by Neo-Rio-101 · · Score: 3, Informative

    See cat. See bag.
    Notice how the cat is no longer in the bag.

    In any case, I know there are private trackers out there for old games for emulators that have pretty much everything. They keep a very low profile because they follow the first rule of fight club.

    Besides, most of this content is now floating about on thousands of pirate retropie boxes being flogged off on ebay

    --
    READY.
    PRINT ""+-0
  4. TRIPS: Copyright holds commerce hostage by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    To leave the Berne Convention, a country must first leave the World Trade Organization because the TRIPS agreement includes the terms of the Berne Convention. That would likely cause other countries to increase tariffs on that country's exports. Copyright thus holds not only culture but also commerce hostage.