As I currently live in China at the moment, emulation of older games (by older, I really mean the generations before 3D) is pretty much my only option when I want to play oldschool games. Consoles are illegal to begin with (unless they are Chinese brands. Btw, computer games are NOT video games here, legally speaking). Consoles were banned in 2000. There IS a gray market of consoles here, but then again even if you do find one it will be a "good copy" or an original console that was chipped to play copies because stores don't sell originals of any games here, even new ones.
I buy most of my games on steam, gmg,gog and so on. I did bring a wii here with me, but the wii store is blocked in my region. I think emulation in this case is perfectly fine, even when you don't own the game itself as it is entirely unavailable and the action of playing on a console is illegal to begin with.
Also, I think laws should be changed in Western countries to reflect that games are also art and have an impact on society and they should be preserved. Publishers should be legally obligated to provide the source code of a game or allow its emulation a certain time after it is not sold anymore. For example, I think games like the original Mario Bros are fine to emulate if you own a copy, but that other games as old that are completely out of print and unavailable more than a decade after its original release should be legally playable with or without prior ownership, such as Diablo 1 for example.
I also think the case against piracy and emulation of stolen ROMs is much stronger when you argument from a moral point of view than a legal point of view. I guess most here would agree that we consider piracy wrong because it steals revenues from the producers of the goods we enjoy. As such, we should also agree that once something has been de-facto abandoned by its creators then it should fall into the public's hands.
I buy most of my games on steam, gmg,gog and so on. I did bring a wii here with me, but the wii store is blocked in my region. I think emulation in this case is perfectly fine, even when you don't own the game itself as it is entirely unavailable and the action of playing on a console is illegal to begin with.
Also, I think laws should be changed in Western countries to reflect that games are also art and have an impact on society and they should be preserved. Publishers should be legally obligated to provide the source code of a game or allow its emulation a certain time after it is not sold anymore. For example, I think games like the original Mario Bros are fine to emulate if you own a copy, but that other games as old that are completely out of print and unavailable more than a decade after its original release should be legally playable with or without prior ownership, such as Diablo 1 for example.
I also think the case against piracy and emulation of stolen ROMs is much stronger when you argument from a moral point of view than a legal point of view. I guess most here would agree that we consider piracy wrong because it steals revenues from the producers of the goods we enjoy. As such, we should also agree that once something has been de-facto abandoned by its creators then it should fall into the public's hands.
