Important Piracy Rules

[Cat333Pokémon]

This is an official amendment to the Forum Guidelines.

1. These rules apply to all parts of Victory Road, including private messages.
2. Linking to a commercial ROM file, ISO image, or warez; music, book, television episode, or film download; or a page where a these commercial media can be downloaded will result in an significant negative consequences. Homebrew ROMs and most game hacks (IPS patches) do not count as commercial data and can be linked and discussed without issue.
3. Linking to an IPS patch or providing cheat codes, such as those used by an Action Replay, that circumvent anti-piracy techniques installed by the designer, publisher, or a third party is also considered illegal and will also result in significant negative consequences.
4. Promotion of piracy is also not allowed. Promotion is defined as supporting of illegally obtaining copyrighted media, professing preference of piracy over purchasing, admitting to owning illegal media, or stating knowledge of where to obtain illegal media. This will result in a verbal warning, followed by an infraction, and then a three-day ban.
5. Discussing ROM disassembly and information about ROM data being disassembled by other parties is allowed.
6. These rules may be freely edited at any time as necessary by staff members. These rules also have a loose interpretation applied; in other words, if someone is looking for a loophole, the rules can be bent to apply to that loophole. Staff members caught editing these rules for their own illicit means will succomb to the same ban rules as normal members.

[Technomancer]

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

• Promotion of piracy is also not allowed.

:c

Ffffffffffffffffffffffine. I'll keep my paws clean. Meanie. x3

Seriously though, I'd also like to add to this by encouraging all members to not discuss the piracy of Pokémon at all, including off-site. I would like to remind all members that discussion of piracy on any public catalyst is technically illegal.

Q: But Tech, you do it all the time! D:

A: Yeah, and I've been caught and sent to federal prison, stfu.

This is not just for reasons linking to VictoryRoad. Considering the massive amount of "clean" ROMs soon to hit all manner of vaults, bays, and wires, I would like to give solemn advice to all members considering piracy, whether beginning to immediately gain a copy of B/W, or seasoned Pirates just wanting to seed.

There are going to be a lot of copies of this floating around the net for some time to come, considering we won't get copies for a very long time to come, even if it is only a few months. As a veteran Technomancer and Pirate, I would ask that all members become discouraged to download ROMs of B/W anywhere. Lots of these will be fakes. And I mean a lot. As in all of them. Don't trust anyone when they tell you they found a "clean, translated" version, hacked ROMs that work on anything, or even a link to a site. Just don't do it.

tl;dr: Avoid B/W ROMs like the Plague. Period.

This public service announcement was brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Technomancer.

[Masterge77]

Most people are only downloading ROMs just simply to rip the sprites, not to play the game.....

[Jason_Henge]

We told you several HUNDRED times in the chat. We don't care what you do, don't talk about it here.

[FreezeWarp]

I modified rule three to stress that it only applies for cheats or ISOs that circumvent anti-piracy techniques, rather than those in general (I had to read the rule four or five times myself before understanding this).

[kakashidragon]

Isn't downloading roms illegel anyways or are there some that is legel? I just wanted to know for a long time.

[Jaredvcxz]

Originally Posted by kakashidragon

Isn't downloading roms illegel anyways or are there some that is legel? I just wanted to know for a long time.

Downloading ROMs is illegal.

[kakashidragon]

oh ok then, good to know. that way if like someone i know wants to download a rom i'll let them know its illegal to do that.

[Technomancer]

Originally Posted by kakashidragon

oh ok then, good to know. that way if like someone i know wants to download a rom i'll let them know its illegal to do that.

That won't stop anyone from doing it. :l

It really, really won't.

Piracy is a fickle thing. We all know it's illegal, but we still do it.

Yes, its illegal, but there aren't patrol teams looking to "Crack down" on fifteen year olds who want a ROM of Pokémon Black.

I consider Piracy of any media to be like methamphetamine. Yes, it's illegal to produce, distribute, use, and possess... But only if you do any of the above en masse will anyone care. :l

I have well over ten TB worth of stolen data, and my own parole officer doesn't care. :l She's noted that not only is it not her job to keep track of crap like that, but they have other problems on their hands, like taking down The Bay or Rapidshare.

I'm weird, I know. I offer insight on both sides of this thread: The legitimacy of data and upholding the law, as well as piracy and the distribution of free media. I encourage safe practices in both terms.

Basically, don't go around saying it's illegal to download ROMs, or anything illegally, as you'll only look like a total dork. :l Let them download it and face the law, if cops ever care about ten year olds downloading Pokémon. But all the same, don't do it yourself.

[Jaredvcxz]

Also, if someone's breaking a law, they probably already know that they're breaking it.

[Buoysel]

Technical, the actual act of downloading the software is not illegal (yet); however, uploading the software is illegal. And if you get caught with a copy you could get in trouble. This is one reason piracy is so big. They can't stop you from downloading the data, and if they know that you are downloading the data, they have to come up with a good excuse of how they came to find out, as monitoring your internet connection is currently illegal. Also note that when you use a torrent to download the file, you automatically share the file as you download it. SO as you download it, you are also uploading it. (which is illegal)

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and I am not responsible for the FBI knocking on your door. Sources: being very bored and Google.

[Jaredvcxz]

Yeah, but at the current point, the official law is too confusing and easy to manipulate in corporates' favor, so it's best to ban piracy talk almost completely.

[zsaberslash]

This page has an FAQ on the legality of ROMs and such.

A recent law here in the UK means that persistent pirates can have their internet connection terminated with warning. There's an easy way of checking pirates. A rightsholder could connect to a P2P network of a download that they own the rights to and note the IP addresses.

[alternateshadow300]

Originally Posted by kakashidragon

Isn't downloading roms illegel anyways or are there some that is legel? I just wanted to know for a long time.

The only legal way to download ROM files is if you:
A.) Are using it to test games you plan on owning in the future. ROM MUST be removed from your hard drive within 24 hours if you do not own the game legally.
or B.) Homebrew.

[OMGITSJAD]

Originally Posted by alternateshadow300

The only legal way to download ROM files is if you:
A.) Are using it to test games you plan on owning in the future. ROM MUST be removed from your hard drive within 24 hours if you do not own the game legally.
or B.) Homebrew.

First one is a lie. Second isn't a ROM, so it's completely different.

There's some ROM related legal listings here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/help/entry.html?cat=24
If anyone wants to read it instead of asking a ton of questions.

[FreezeWarp]

Downloading and Uploading ROMs which you own or have licensed the rights to is 100% legal.

Because most countries have the "innocent until proven guilty" thing, I would like to assume you have the rights to the ROM unless you say otherwise.

http://www.victoryroad.net/showpost....7&postcount=12

Originally Posted by OMGITSJAD

First one is a lie. Second isn't a ROM, so it's completely different.

There's some ROM related legal listings here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/help/entry.html?cat=24
If anyone wants to read it instead of asking a ton of questions.

If the second one is an .nds file, its a ROM. It just is. But yeah, first one is totally a lie.

[Jason_Henge]

Why are we still discussing this? =/

[alternateshadow300]

I need to research more often...

[Cat333Pokémon]

This is just a reminder to everyone that, with the advent of Pokémon Black in white in English, to please refresh yourself on the piracy rules. Thank you.

[Cat333Pokémon]

Time for yet another bump. FYI, anyone posting an LP from a pirated game will receive respective repercussions.

[Quadcentruo]

Originally Posted by JeffTheKiller

does saying you have used a ROM/emulator (if I get an infraction for even asking this I will throw enchilada's at birds in anger) count as promoting the use of them? In the post that I just recently made involving them all I said was that I had used one 2 or so years ago, that was it. not where it was, just that. That doesn't sound like promotion.

Originally Posted by Cat333Pokémon

• Promotion of piracy is also not allowed. Promotion is defined as supporting of illegally obtaining copyrighted media, professing preference of piracy over purchasing, admitting to owning illegal media, or stating knowledge of where to obtain illegal media. This will result in a verbal warning (or kick on the chat), followed by an infraction, and then a three-day ban.

That should answer your question. Although, if the ROM in question is one you have obtained through downloading the data of your own cartridge onto your computer, that is okay because that is a legal ROM. Emulators are legal no matter what.

[JeffTheKiller]

Originally Posted by Quadcentruo

That should answer your question.

just missed you, I got a pm regarding it. and kinda sorta on the that, my friend showed me how to do that with his cartridge on my computer.

[PokeRemixStudio]

So we're not allowed to say we enjoyed someone's Pokemon hack, which implies that we own a ROM?

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by PokeRemixStudio

So we're not allowed to say we enjoyed someone's Pokemon hack, which implies that we own a ROM?

Seems like we do need some elaboration and clarification on that part, huh? Otherwise, nobody is going to bother with these hacks.

[Yoshi648]

It's one thing to discuss a hack in and of itself, just don't say how you are playing it.

There is a difference between "Oh man, did anyone else get frustrated at the 3rd gym in Pokemon Purple" and "Uh, the Pokemon Purple patch for my downloaded ROM of Pokemon Red isn't working".

It's simple. If it doesn't have to be mentioned that you are doing something you shouldn't, then don't bring it up in the first place.

[PokeRemixStudio]

I can't imagine the mercy of implications-are-alright applying to every rule.

[Cat333Pokémon]

I think this should clarify exactly what I'm going for.

Okay:

I love the Pokémon Brown hack.

I am currently creating a hack of Super Mario World.

These two cases show that you are using a ROM to enjoy an original derivation from an existing product. Like song parodies, these are completely fine and represent support for hackers. Who doesn't love playing through a hack and seeing what's different?

I have extracted MIDI files from the Pokémon Black ROM.

Definitely fine.

I own a ROM dumping utility and have extracted the ROM from the physical cartridge.

This is fine if you're honest. Be careful because staff might ask you to prove it.


Not okay:

I love playing Pokémon Ruby on my computer.

I have many ROMs on my iPod.

I hacked my PlayStation specifically to play burned games.

These three cases, however, imply you are stealing a video game and not paying for it, and are therefore being a pirate. Rather than pay for a physical cartridge of the game, you are paying nothing for a product that a company put a lot of time and effort into making, one which they expect at least a small premium for you to enjoy.


Now for the gray area...

As EarthBound is far too expensive, I downloaded a ROM and played through it.

This is surprisingly common. For some of us, even the Pokémon games are outside of our budgets. However, I think most of us can agree that rare cult classics like EarthBound, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and the like are somewhat passable for emulating, even though it's against the rules to admit it. I don't condone piracy, but I do understand cases like this. Still, it's best not to bring it up how you're playing it.

I decided to try out Paper Mario. If I like it, I'll buy it on the Virtual Console.

Now, this is extremely common, and I bet at least half of the active members have done it. The premise is simple: you download a ROM, you enjoy it, and you go purchase a real copy of it. It's still illegal, but it is fair to say that playing the ROM influenced you to buy it.

[TurtwigX]

Speaking of Earthbound, does talking about playing and enjoying games like Earthbound Zero and Mother 3, which have no existing English carts, count as piracy? Or does that go under the ROM hack exception?

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by TurtwigX

Speaking of Earthbound, does talking about playing and enjoying games like Earthbound Zero and Mother 3, which have no existing English carts, count as piracy? Or does that go under the ROM hack exception?

Basically, unreleased ROMs, or translation patches. What's Cat's stance on this?

[Shade]

These three cases, however, imply you are stealing a video game and not paying for it, and are therefore being a pirate. Rather than pay for a physical cartridge of the game, you are paying nothing for a product that a company put a lot of time and effort into making, one which they expect at least a small premium for you to enjoy.

Not necessarily true. It is possible that said person backed up their copy of a game so the original doesn't get damaged from things like scratches, breaks, etc, which is unfortunately a very common fate from regular plays of a disc-based game. I feel this is more grey-area than not okay.

[Twiggy]

Originally Posted by Shade

Not necessarily true. It is possible that said person backed up their copy of a game so the original doesn't get damaged from things like scratches, breaks, etc, which is unfortunately a very common fate from regular plays of a disc-based game. I feel this is more grey-area than not okay.

Indeed. If I recall correctly, hacking a PlayStation is also done to beat region-locking. Said modding is also required to backup discs.

I still remember how easily PS1 discs get scratched. My, how many games now unplayable, eh?

[Quadcentruo]

It seems we might just have to re-evaluate the rules on Piracy a bit to clarify all the grey areas and what is and is not considered "Piracy."