Are Nintendo emulators illegal?

Emulators are legal. images of system BIOS are usually copyrighted, and almost all games are copyrighted, but the emulators are legal.
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Can emulators get you in trouble?

So, basically, under no circumstances is playing ROMs on an emulator legal. But no one has ever been prosecuted for it – not even once. Mind you, websites sourcing ROMs have often been asked to shut down.
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Are Nintendo ROMs legal?

It is illegal to download a Nintendo ROM from the internet whether or not you own an authentic copy of that game.
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Can you be sued for using an emulator?

Yes, emulators are legal. But we all know that the overwhelming use of them is in illegal situations. What percentage of emulators are only used to play homebrewed games or commercial games that an individual has personally backed up? Almost all other uses are illegal.
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Are emulators legal in US?

The only illegal part of an emulator, is the ROM you are playing. If you take a ROM from a website, and play it. That is called piracy. Unless, you OWN the physical copy of the game, and use your own ROM you pulled from that cartridge/disc, it is illegal to play the ROMS.
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Why is Nintendo so anti emulation?

The federal lawsuit—filed Monday in the District Court of Rhode Island and first reported by Stephen Totilo—is the company's most expansive and significant argument yet against emulation technology that it alleges "turns general computing devices into tools for massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo and ...
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Is downloading ROMs illegal if you own the game?

No. Any unauthorized copy of a game is a copyright violation. Places try to make up laws to allow for it, but that does not make it true as actualy copyright laws already show such games and emulators to be a violation of said copyright laws.
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Can you get caught for emulating?

If you own a game physically, you are likely to emulate or own a ROM of the game. However, there's no legal precedent in the United States to say it's illegal. There is no trial on record of any company going to court over emulators or ROMs and their use.
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Has anyone been sued for emulating games?

Emulators aren't necessarily illegal, but pirating games to play on them is. But Nintendo said in its lawsuit that there's no way to legal way to use Yuzu. Nintendo argued that Yuzu executes codes that "defeat" Nintendo's security measures, including decryption using "an illegally-obtained copy of prod.keys."
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What does Nintendo say about emulators?

Nintendo: “Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development & stifles innovation” One thing that Nintendo has become very infamous for is their very strict measures on fan content, as well as emulation.
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Is it illegal to play Pokemon ROMs?

A backup or image you make of your own game is legal. Downloading a ROM or backup off the Internet is always illegal unless the copyright holder authorized it.
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Is emulating the same as pirating?

Emulators make software piracy possible by circumventing anti-piracy countermeasures on video game systems. Every Sony PlayStation video game system comes with a special security chip installed that prevents the unit from playing pirated PlayStation games (copies made from the original using a CD burner, for example).
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Is Dolphin EMU legal?

Projects like Dolphin are seemingly not illegal, given they can be used to run homebrew games and applications, developed by fans of an abandoned console. And the emulators themselves most often contain no pirated material or illegal software.
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Are handheld game emulators legal?

According to all legal precedents, emulation is legal within the United States. However, unauthorized distribution of copyrighted code remains illegal, according to both country-specific copyright and international copyright law.
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Why are emulators legal but not ROMs?

Emulators are legal to download and use, however, sharing copyrighted ROMs online is illegal. There is no legal precedent for ripping and downloading ROMs for games you own, though an argument could be made for fair use.
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Does Nintendo go after emulators?

The coverage and development of the emulators has attracted notable attention from the industry, including Nintendo, as well as Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH which, at the request of publishing companies partnered with them concerned about piracy, has developed a digital rights management measure intended to prevent ...
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How to legally get Switch ROMs?

There several Legal Ways to Obtain Switch ROMs without breaking law. One option is to purchase the games from authorized retailers, such as the Nintendo eShop or physical game stores. Purchasing games legally, Supporting Developers publishers also ensuring infringing copyright laws.
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How to play ROMs legally?

One way to acquire legal ROMs is backing up official copies of the games from owned physical medium using cart readers or modded consoles. As long as a physical copy is owned, it is considered to be legal to use a digital copy for personal use.
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What is the punishment for downloading ROMs?

The media companies are too afraid to lose, so they refuse to bring a case to test it. This means that (for practical uses of the legal terms), it is 100% legal to download illegal ROMs. So, you can't find cases of legal trouble for it because it's effectively legal.
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Why emulators are legal?

While emulation software itself are legal, emulating games is only so when legitimately purchasing the game physically and ripping the contents. Freely downloading or uploading game ROMs across various internet sites is considered to be a form of piracy, and users may be sued for copyright infringement.
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Is it illegal to play emulated games?

Emulators are legal, as emulating a system is not exactly the same as copying proprietary code of that system. Except those emulators which require the BIOS files to run, they are illegal. Since NES emulation does not require bios files that won't be a problem.
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Why did Nintendo sue Yuzu?

Nintendo argued in its lawsuit that "the vast majority of Yuzu users are using Yuzu to play downloaded pirated games in Yuzu," a fact that could have played against the emulator maker at trial even if non-infringing uses for the emulator do exist.
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Why is Yuzu being sued?

TOWARDS the end of February, Nintendo sued the developers of Yuzu for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale”.
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Is emulation bad if you own the game?

Emulation is not illegal, however, there's almost no legal way to get the games, even if you own them. While roms are not inherently illegal, if you have to bypass any form of DRM to obtain them, you're violating the DMCA's anti-circumvention measures. Is it illegal to emulate games you own on pc?
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Why did Nintendo sue Dolphin?

This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo's protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to do the same.
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