How is it legal to sell an emulator?
On the droid apps market there is a game boy advance emulator (gameboid) for sale, I don’t believe nintendo produced it, so how is this legal? is the gba’s operating system not copyrighted?
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Apparently it’s the ROMs that are illegal, not the emulators themselves.
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As long as you write it yourself and you’re not plagarising anyone else’s code, it’s perfectly legal – and why wouldn’t it be?
The emulation software, which “emulates” the ROM(game file), does not infringe upon any copyrights. It is the ROM file that is illegal because it is a copyright protected game.
However there are plenty of legal rom files to choose from.
In my opinion, this is a gray area, as many statements have been made about the legality of emulators and rom files.
This is what I’ve gathered so far to be true.
Emulators themselves are legal. It is the bios and copyrighted software within the emulator that’s illegal.
Downloading rom files is technically illegal, even if you own a physical copy of the game.(If that’s true, then why make them available to download on the internet?)
If you download the gameboy app and use it for your personal pleasure, then it’s not illegal. The emulator police isn’t going to knock on your door.
Hope this helps.
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