Computer Piracy - Emulation

Emulation

Another form of computer piracy that is growing very fast is called Emulation. Emulation is the process of imitating another machine through the use of a software program. You can then run software compiled on the original machine, on your machine. In other words, this allows you to run Macintosh or Amiga software on your IBM. It allows you to play old arcade, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Playstation, and even Nintendo 64 games on your computer.

Emulators are the software programs that emulate the hardware of the original machine. A ROM, which stand for Read Only Memory, is a copyrighted software portion of the original machine. The ROM is the game for a system, which usually comes on a microchip inside a cartridge format. The ROM is what contains the Super Mario, or Sonic the Hedgehog game, and is what the consumer purchases in the store for around $50. Pirates use a backup device to copy the ROM image from the cartridge microchip, to a software format on the computer. They then run the emulator, which loads the ROM, the combination of which imitates the hardware of the original machine, and the microchip of the cartridge. While the distribution of emulators is not illegal, the distribution of ROMs is.

Games which cost $40 in the store, take 10 minutes to download, and only take up 1 MB of disk space. These ROM images are small, and easily found on the Internet, which makes this type of piracy appealing. A pirate can store around 500 ROM images on a Recordable CD, and download the emulator instead of buying the original console system, a savings of over $20,000. While it may take a 10 year old a month or two to save up enough money to buy one game in the store, he can download every game on the market, for free. It is also possible to buy a CD with the 500 or more games compiled on it for under $15 on the black market of the Internet.

One of the emulation pirate's main arguments is that they are not breaking any laws. It is legal to make a copy of the original game for backup purposes. That, for the most part, is true. The IDSA says that "U.S. Copyright laws permit making of a 'backup' copy of computer programs for archival purposes. However, the right to make backup copies of computer programs for archival purposes, as embodied in 17 U.S.C. section 117(2), does not in any way authorize the owner of a copy of a video or computer game to post or download a copy of that game to or from the Internet" (IDSA). This means that users are allowed to have backup copies of ROMs, if they made the copies themselves, from their original cartridge, but are not allowed to transfer them over the Internet. Most emulation pirates download ROM images of cartridges which they may own, from the Internet, which is still illegal.

Another argument of the emulation pirate is that it is alright to download games because they are no longer available in stores, so the company that made the game no longer makes a profit. The IDSA says that this argument is invalid because "the current availability of a game in stores is irrelevant to its copyright status. Unlike trademarks, copyrights are not considered abandoned if they are no longer enforced. Copyrights do not enter the public domain just because they are no longer commercially exploited or widely available." (IDSA). According to the IDSA, "copyrights... are valid for 75 years from the date [that the product was published]" (IDSA). Also just because the company that made the game is no longer profiting from it, does not mean that it is not available in stores which sell used games. That means that emulation pirates are taking the business away from these used game stores.

Another argument along that lines by emulation pirates is that they are helping promote the company that made the game. As the IDSA puts it, they said that "People making emulators and ROMs are helping publishers by making old games available that are no longer being sold by the copyright owner. This does not hurt anyone and allows gamers to play old favorites" (IDSA). Emulation may promote the company, however, Activision, one of the companies that made games for the Atari 2600 tried to bring back their old titles for play on the PC. Activision "is selling two 'Atari 2600 Action Pack' CD-ROM titles that contain an emulator and several [ROMs] of classic 2600 games...However, the widespread availability of illegally reproduced titles may present a problem for the company" (Atwood).

A final argument by the emulation pirates is that just one person will not make a difference. This argument is also invalid. The Internet is growing at an alarming rate. It has been estimated that there are now over "50 million people online in the United States" (BSA). If only 5 percent of those people bought one of the CDs with 500 games, worth $20,000, it would make a huge impact. According to the IDSA, "worldwide piracy is estimated to have cost the U.S. entertainment software industry $3.2 billion in 1998" (IDSA). They also say that there was "$5.1 billion in entertainment software sold in the U.S. in 1997" (IDSA). Which means that pirates stole close to half of what the software industry should have earned.

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Emulation

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