About Distributing ROMs...

I have received a lot of mail about this, so I want to clarify the situation about distributing ROM images of software.

Many emulators, for example, RockNES, or SNES9X, are next to worthless without software titles (ROM images) to use with them. However, it is against the law to distribute any copyrighted ROM images against the wishes of the developer.

In some cases, the original developers have decided that they are no longer making substantial profit from their older technology, and have allowed individuals to duplicate software for the platform. As an example, most Commodore 64 games are now in the public domain, and therefore emulation.net will provide links to allow users to download them.

However, in the case of many corporations, this is not the case. For example, Nintendo is very protective of their trademarks and software. A few users have purchased Nintendo cartridge loading devices, copied ROM data from their cartridges, then distributed these images across the net. Most of these users have had their web pages shut down, and may have been legally threatened by Nintendo.

Also, Some people who work on emulation.net have ported several shareware emulators to the Macintosh. Since they are earning money from their involvement with these emulators, they could be in severe financial liability if they were to pirate software for use with the emulators with which they are involved. Gaining profit by being involved in piracy can be legally, financially and even socially devastating. In short, emulation.net would be shut down; Contributors could face severe fines, possibly go to prison, or lose their jobs.

For these reasons, emulation.net cannot distribute ROMs for some emulators, or support sites whose purpose is to hold ROMs. Sorry, but we're not going to jail over a web page. We agree that it's not the best of situations, but it's a fair compromise. If you really want ROM images for an emulator, The following sites host legally downloadable roms: Game Asylum and PD Roms. If you are looking for files you know are legal, but aren't available at those sites, try using Google or looking in the DMOZ directory.

For more information, see the links available at the Wikipedia article.

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