If not do you know if there are any legal portable n64's ? Id like to play some classics on the road without feeling bad or people looking at

Is open pandora legal?

http://www.open-pandora.org/

I have a book by benjamin heckendorn. I want to know if it is legal to build one and play it. The book is called "Hacking Video Game Consoles: Turn your old video game systems into awesome new portables"

It depends on the country you live. I'm pretty sure that is not legal in USA and EU, with some differences (ie EU it is allowed for personal knowledge only): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_engineering#Legality

Legality is a tricky thing.

It depends a great deal on your location, and also of the details.

It may or may not be legal to build a device that can circumvent copyright for your own use, or to use one. It is probably not legal to acquire images of games online (rather than extracting the game yourself from a copy you own). Even that is tricky since copyright law varies by nation, in some places downloading unauthorized copies is illegal, in others like the US it is the distribution -- not the downloading -- that is prohibited. Some actions may make a difference based on your stated intent. And it may make a difference on how it is discovered, who discovers it, and their personal vendettas.

It is not legal in most of the world to distribute unauthorized copies of the games. It is also not legal in many countries to reverse engineer the products for the intent of violating copyright law, although you may be legally allowed to do it to get the games to play in your custom device.

Depending on location it may be civil law rather than criminal law, so even you outright confessed to a police officer that you copied the rom images and the game platform and used tools that were downloaded without proper permissions, if it is a matter of civil law in that country, the cop couldn't really push for any criminal charges.

Ultimately if you have bought an Open Pandora kit from a nearby retailer and are putting it together, by itself it is just fine to assemble it and use it.


For the second matter you brought up, feeling bad, that is up to you.

Emulation is legal in US as far as I know. Copyright infringement isn't. As an example, if I buy a Playstation game, dump it with my own CD drive, and play it on my phone using an emulator, that's legal because I haven't infringed anyone's copyright. (Creating backups of your games is legal under US law iirc)

Sometimes emulation is looked warily upon, because most times it's coupled with copyright infringement, however that does not necessarily have to be the case. Platform holders usually use languages to make something that is legal appear illegal. For example, here, Nintendo states that "The video games are obtained by downloading illegally copied software, i.e. Nintendo ROMs, from Internet distributors." However that's not necessarily the case. Notice that Nintendo refrains from labeling using emulators, or creating backup copies illegal, because they're not. But they put them on the same page and category of copyright infringement to make them appear so.

In my opinion, if you own the game, you shouldn't feel guilty about playing it. Consoles will all stop working at some point, doesn't mean you have to repurchase games you already own (which is what nintendo wants)

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention is that when it comes to legality, a lot of things are just in a kind of grey area (when no one's really sure if they're legal or not) because they have never been challenged in court. Using your backup copies with emulators is one such case. So do it at your own discretion.

Thanks for that information and replies guys. I really hope gezegond's reply is true its just some games you can't legally dump like n64 games

Keep an eye for agreement terms such as "though shalt not reverse-engineer our console," which would render all emulators of that particular platform illegal.

Keep an eye for agreement terms such as "though shalt not reverse-engineer our console," which would render all emulators of that particular platform illegal.

Wouldn't that just make creating the emulator illegal? Running a program that's been reverse engineered is not the same thing as reverse engineering a program, unless the program you're running is actually doing some reverse engineering of another program.

Keep an eye for agreement terms such as "though shalt not reverse-engineer our console," which would render all emulators of that particular platform illegal.

End user agreements can not override existing laws in a nation.

Emulation is legal in US as far as I know. Copyright infringement isn't.

Many emulation programs violates copyrights (Playstation and PS2 emu programs for example), even without the game ROMs, because they violate the copyright on certain key BIOS files and processes. Some emulation software get around this by not actually distributing the copyright-violating files themselves, instead having the end-user (you) violate the copyright by illegally downloading it. Others bundle the copyrighted files, and the end user and the distributors are violating the copyrights.

And some emulation programs break encryptions, making them violations of the DMCA (I think the XBox emulators, for example).

As an example, if I buy a Playstation game, dump it with my own CD drive, and play it on my phone using an emulator, that's legal because I haven't infringed anyone's copyright.

Well, yes, actually, because the Playstation emulator you downloaded is infringing the Playstation BIOS copyright. Legally, it's not any different than downloading an MP3 file. The bulk of the emulator itself isn't infringing - only key files. So it's like downloading an open-source completely legal Music Player, that comes with a pirated copy of U2's latest album.

using emulators, or creating backup copies illegal, because they're not.

Yes, sometimes they are. And commercial entities make sure that "sometimes" applies to their products.

Ripping your own DVDs using your own DVD-drive and running them on your own computer is illegal (civil-law, not criminal law), because it violates the DMCA.

In my opinion, if you own the game, you shouldn't feel guilty about playing it.

There's multiple areas of ethics here.
Is it ethical for corporations to abuse the legal system to enact and warp laws to restrict rights of consumers?
Is it ethical for us, as humans, to pick and choose what laws in our opinion we feel like following?

It's a sticky ball of muck. Generally I try to follow the letter and spirit of the law - even the laws I don't agree with - unless something more important override them (i.e. my religion and ethics trump my government - I'm not going to murder someone if the government ordered me to - but my desire to be entertained doesn't trump the government's laws, even if the government's laws are unfair). This isn't out of fear of the government, but more due to my philosophy, morals, and religion.

But when the laws get overblown, far reaching, and stupid, and when breaking them seems like such a minor little thing, and when I'm tired, sometimes I do break them in moments of laziness. In general, I try not to allow my desire to be entertained to lead me in the slippery slope of letting my feelings dictate my ethics - there are numerous other ways to be entertained.

So anyway, I'm not trying to be hypocritical or religious here - I've violated copyright laws occasionally, though in general I'm against that - whether the OP chooses to break them or not is up to his free will, but whether they are "legal" or not is defined by the government, which in this area (copyright law) is mostly dictated by the interests of corporations.

Almost everyone in the USA who uses the internet has accidentally, at some point or other, violated copyright. Bill Gates even admitted to watching copyright infringing YouTube videos at least once.

The big question is how much do we knowingly decide that we're above the law, and in what areas, for what reasons.

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To answer the original question: @gamer12245:

<assuming you are talking about USA law, though the similar laws applies to most other european countries as well>

While there is some ambiguity, it basically boils down to (in my non-lawyer understanding):

• If you take an actual N64, and run actual N64 cartridges on it, that's fine.
• If you take an actual physical N64, rearrange the pieces (or add to it) to put it in a more convenient form, and run actual N64 games on it, that's fine (as long as the added pieces don't themselves violate copyright or the DMCA - which modchips designed to play ROMs do violate).
• If your modified N64 is used to run ROMs you download off the internet, regardless of whether you currently, or some time in the past, owned those games, it's illegal.
• If you harvest your own ROMs, and in doing so break encryption (even simple encryption), it's illegal. [edit:] Unless certain conditions are met. See my later post.
• If you use software emulation, even with non-downloaded ROMs you harvested yourself, and if your software emulator violates copyright or requires you to violate copyright (like every Playstation emulator does) or circumvent or breaks encryption, it's illegal.

Yes, this current legal system sucks and is anti-consumer. It very much needs to be overhauled to be more consumer-friendly.

Whether you choose to follow this part of the law is up to you. I'm not suggesting you feel bad about yourself, but if you don't like these laws, you should direct your irritation and response towards the people who can change them in addition to any other course of action you choose to take.

On numerous times I've spent hours looking into and researching what loopholes could possibly permit it. There is currently zero legal way for me, as a USA citizen, to play Playstation games I own on my own computer (same applies to smartphones). I've been rather thorough in my research. However, modifying an N64 using the original pieces (and adding additional pieces to it - as long as those new pieces don't violate any laws), and using original cartridges, that's fine.

Will you get caught if you use a software emulator with your own harvested ROMs? No. You'll get away with it scot free - but that wasn't the question you asked.

Keep an eye for agreement terms such as "though shalt not reverse-engineer our console," which would render all emulators of that particular platform illegal.

End user agreements can not override existing laws in a nation.

Yes they can override some existing laws. End user agreements are contracts. Contracts are designed for and permit giving up rights.

For example, a "Non-Disclosure Agreement" is a contract giving up freedom of speech in a specific area for a specific duration of time. And freedom of speech is a core tenent of the constitution, yet NDA's can very much override them - and that override is enforceable in court.

Many contracts are basically saying, "I recognize that law X exists, but I willingly give up my right to that in exchange for Y."

There are government laws that govern what can be in contracts. The primary issue is whether EULAs and TOS's are enforceable as contracts - some courts say yes, some say no, some say it depends on how they are presented. And the government can override contracts (including EULAs and TOS's) saying that they are unfair or overreaching.

AND there are government laws, ignoring contracts entirely, that make reverse engineering legal or illegal, depending on how it is carried out. But all that's an aside, and likely doesn't apply to the OP's situation. Again, in my non-lawyer opinion.