Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

Is it legal to play roms on console classix which claims to be legal. Even if what they are doing is legal, do i have the right to the game. Am I stealing. Are roms intended to be run on third party software in this case? Are they distributing?

Console classix legal niche how it works

We would like to inform you that we are fully aware of the legal concerns of our business and that we are acting in full accordance with the law. We understand your determination to prevent software piracy. This was the very reason for our founding. We wish to provide a legal alternative for the retro-gaming community.

We would first like to address the matter of our ROM images. Our images were created by our own personnel with a generic eprom reader. This is in obedience to section 117 of the US copyright law. This exception does, in fact, apply to data contained in ROM semiconductor chips. It was the decision of the court in the case of SONY vs. CONNECTIX that copying of software in the Playstation's ROM bios was legal. This software is contained in ROM semiconductor chips, just as the game data in Nintendo cartridges.

We would also like to address the concern that we are publishing our images on the internet. This is simply untrue. We offer a client software that does connect to our server through an internet backbone. However the images are not simply available for download. When a client requests a game image, the server places this image into the client random access memory (RAM). This image is also produced in accordance with section 117 of the US Copyright Law. Our server side application tracks the images that are currently in use. This application also ensures that no more copies of a software package are in use than are in our possession. This is to ensure legal rights of our users to the game in question. Should communication between the client and the server fail, the server frees the image and the client clears the memory allocated for the game, thereby destroying the client's copy of said game. We are also granted the right to lease copies of a software in our possession, provided we also ensure the customers' rights to the original software.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Intellectual Property questions and answers in Massachusetts

Looking for something else?