Apparently the Windows 10 store has had illegal anime streaming sites appear within it before, so this isn't *that* shocking, but still. Their policies are lax as fuck if they're rubber stamping stuff like this.
An emulator on the xbox one? That's really weird O.o What does this even really mean. Could I emulate other games like a gamecube or ps2 game on the xbox one? I'm just confused I guess.
Pretty sure it is. Same rules apply as with CD's where you can rip them onto a PC and do what thou wilt. As long as the media is used for private use.
Emulators in and of itself aren't illegal, but if you read the link NTM posted it's pretty clear what their thoughts are since the copies or ROMs themselves and playing them are illegal:
Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?
There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.
Doesn't matter what Nintendo thinks of it. They've been caught essentially selling you pirated ROMs of their own games before because apparently they couldn't be assed to dump it themselves. See this GDC talk for source and more information about emulation and its legality in general.
@error52: From what I understand, you can download an emulator, say ZSNES, but you can't legally download ROM's, so technically, you can buy the system, but not the games. I'm pretty sure what Nintendo says is fact, until determined otherwise. They're not just being whiny babies that dislike when people download their games for free. I'm not really arguing how I personally feel about it, just the facts as they are. I think emulating games, and playing emulated games and it being legal or not is something people aren't entirely sure about, which is also why Nintendo posted the page I linked to.
@ntm: He just agreed with you that downloading ROMs of copyrighted content is illegal. What he is saying is that creating your own ROMs from your own cartridges and then playing them on an emulator is legal. That is, to the best of my knowledge, true in most places. Although here in the UK there are some really dumb archaic laws that technically make ripping CD's illegal, so I have to imagine dumping a ROM is also illegal here. In most places though, creating a backup of media for personal use is perfectly legal.
In any case, Nintendo almost certainly own the trademark for "NES" and could probably get thing taken off the market for trademark infringement, since it's called nesbox. This seems like a really weird thing to be on the Windows store.
An emulator on the xbox one? That's really weird O.o What does this even really mean. Could I emulate other games like a gamecube or ps2 game on the xbox one? I'm just confused I guess.
NESbox is just an emulator for original NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis and GameBoy Color/Advanced games. So theoretically you could emulate those roms on the Xbone if this application ever sees the light of day.
@mattyftm: Aw, you're correct. I misread it because the 'not legal' confused me (though, hypocritically, my first comment said that...). My mistake. Maybe I don't know what this nesbox is? My only argument is that you can't download something like ZSNES, and then legally download and play games from say, CoolROM. Is that not what the nesbox is? How do you get the games? I guess I'll have to look into it. If it is similar to downloading something like ZSNES, and then the game off of CoolROM, then it's not legal, so that's the reason why I say nesbox isn't going to work, or I can't see it working out.
lotta people saying that how Nintendo feels about this is irrelevant. Yes, legally, I suppose it is, but I doubt Microsoft would gleefully allow something like this if Nintendo expressed their disapproval. These companies are technically in competition with each other, but they're not going to straight up allow you to discreetly play another company's pirated software just because it's the tools are technically legal. It's not in the spirit of this business, and, if it even makes it to the store long enough for Nintendo to contact Microsoft about it, Microsoft will help another company protect its copyrighted property.
@ntm: You said using an Emulators is flat out illegal, what they are saying is that Emulators and using them is perfectly legal in some cases and not something Nintendo can just say "shut this down" and have it happen. They kind of skirt past the legal stuff by asking the user to do the illegal acts, so they don't "technically" break the law and are legal. So the Emulator is perfectly fine to distribute and use, but you and i both know that 99.99% of people using it are just using ROM's from the internet and are breaking the law, rather then doing it the legal way by ripping them themselves.
@lego_my_eggo: No, I said playing the games is illegal, I didn't say having an emulator is illegal. I was saying you can download something like ZSNES, but you can't legally download the ROM. That's at least what I meant. I wasn't thinking about ripping the game yourself, and using it for your own purpose, only the download of them from sites like CoolROM and stuff. What you just said in the last sentence is exactly what I was talking about.
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