Folks,

I realize everyone wants to romanticise things, but let's have a reality check here.

1. Nintendo aren't suing anyone:

- They can't sue "Reality Man" and "Epsilon" because they
can't FIND them. Right away, any announcement that
Nintendo are suing fictitious Internet personalities
should be regarded with EXTREME distrust.

- They won't sue these people because of precedent. Their
last 10 lawsuits against emulator authors and ROM pirates,
as well as the largely publicised Sony vs. Connectix
lawsuit, have been shot down in court. They haven't even
gotten so much as a restraining order or injunction out of
the courts. Ever. Hasn't happened.

- The "press release" from "Beth Llewelyn" is bogus:

"Nintendo is very disturbed that Reality Man and
Epsilon

<SNIP!>

Let's stop here. Never ever EVER would a legal-type from a
high-powered corporation like Nintendo refer to the
"goons" as "Reality Man" and "Epsilon". It would be
"persons" or "alleged persons". Right away we can't buy
this piece of bull...

have widely distributed a product designed solely to
play infringing copies of copyrighted works

<SNIP!>

Another goof on the part of the author. Legal types, even
press-release writers, would have know that the authors'
official stance is that they DIDN'T design it to play
copyrighted material, and they're OUTRAGED about it (more
on THAT load of BS later).

developed by Nintendo and its third-party licensees. We
are taking several measures to further protect and
enforce our intellectual property rights

No they aren't.

which, of course, includes the bringing of legal
action.

No it doesn't.

Emulators and Roms are clearly infringing

They aren't, and Nintendo knows this. This may be the only
part of this "press release" where the author sounds like
Nintendo, since NOA staunchly clings to the thought that
emulators and ROMs are violations of some sort, when years
ago it was proven in court that they aren't.

and damage not only 'larger industry players' such as
Nintendo but hundreds of smaller companies who invest
millions of dollars and thousands of hours to develop
and program software only to have it stolen on the
Internet."

Sorry, this is just sad. Nintendo would never use the term
"larger industry players". Not only that, but this whole
line here smacks of someone mimicing the party line.

Beth Llewelyn
Nintendo

Did Beth ever think her credibility would be doubted if
she didn't list her POSITION at Nintendo? And which
Nintendo? Last time I checked all Nintendo taglines said
either "Nintendo of America" or "Nintendo Japan", or
whatnot. Not even an Inc. is present here. Not very
creative.

2. "Epsilon" and "Reality Man" are NOT "outraged".

- They aren't even SURPRISED. They WANTED this to happen.
They set it up that way. They lurked (probably still do)
at the emulation sites. They knew the score. They knew
EXACTLY what this scene was like, and chose to release
anyway.

- Serious programmers do NOT make up "Eleet" sounding
names. They do not hide behind anonymous e-mail, and put
NO contact information in the readme files of their
programs. (Websites which are taken down 24 hours later
don't count!)

- How did they test the program? They DOWNLOADED SOME
ROMS! Wow! Surprise! Did they own all of them? NOT LIKELY.
Either way, they have violated Nintendo's interpretation
of the law, either by owning a GameDoctor64, or by
downloading ROMs... either way they're already guilty of
the things they are "Shocked" about...

- I'm sure some people will be surprised in a month when
another official release comes out "stolen directly from
Reality Man's hard drive when he wasn't looking!" or
"found on a site, I don't remember which one!" or "sent to
me by a friend of a friend who knows Epsilon!"

Nobody buys this, just like nobody bought it when SNES9x
"went away" and "came back". It's just silly.

3. Things which are and aren't illegal:

If you want to buy a copier or whatnot, bear this in mind:
Legal: Buying a ROM copier / archiver / etc.
Illegal: SELLING a ROM copier / archiver / etc.

Which is why you won't find one in the States... hehe...
all of 'em are mail order from overseas. The FCC had their
heads up their butts when they passed this law.

If you DO buy one, the following then applies:
Legal: Owning a ROM copier.
Illegal: Copying ROMs with it. Backup only... and even
then it's iffy.

If you DO make copies, the following applies:
Legal: Doing anything you like with them, except...
Illegal: Trading them with your friends.

Other things which are legal/illegal:

Legal: Emulators... ALL OF THEM. Of new systems, of old
systems, of imaginary systems, of systems not released
yet. Sorry Nintendo, but it's true.

Illegal: Violating your NDA to write an emulator.

Legal: Having lots of ROMs on your hard drive.

Illegal: Posting lots of ROMs to the Internet.

Legal: Downloading ROMs from the Internet.

But the big question of course is, is it legal to PLAY them? The answer is probably not. However,
it's a crime which can neither be proven nor prosecuted.

Remember, the emulator question was settled 15 (more, actually) years ago when Compaq made an
IBM clone. It was settled some more when AMD made an Intel clone. The Franklin Ace was an
Apple II clone that was perfectly legal. Executor is a program which emulates a Mac on a PC, and
it's legal. SoftWindows is legal, despite the fact that it emulates both hardware AND software.

Nothing about emulation is illegal. The authors of UltraHLE know this. Nintendo knows this. If
you've made it to the end of this message, then you know this too. Goodnight all!

- Gurm ([email protected])