NCO: Nintendo Crack Operations
Nintendo has threatened lawsuits against many of the key players in Nintendo
emulator: Y0SHi with his SNES doc, Jerremy Koot with the now returning
SNES '9x, and others. Many feel angry at
Nintendo for their actions, although what they are doing seems perfectly
reasonable and normal to me.
Okay, I know that both SNES '9x and Y0SHi's document are technically legal
-- emulators themselves aren't illegal, and documentation on console systems
certainly isn't. Maybe Nintendo doesn't have grounds for a lawsuit, maybe
they do. That could be debated.
What I will say is that Nintendo has a darn good reason to try to crack down
on emulation: after all, we're the ones taking away from their
business. I'll admit that the emulation community is relitively small and we
probably don't hurt Nintendo very much; especially since nothing higher than
an SNES can possibly be emulated well. Even the better-selling SNES games,
such as Yoshi's Island, Star Fox, and Super Mario RPG
still can't be emulated yet, even after the games are reduced to being found
in pawn shops across the country. Still, we do take away from
Nintendo's business, and even though the emulators and the documentation is
not in of itself illegal, they are often used for illegal purposes.
In the Sillouete story article (found here), the
anonymous author requests that Silhouette not be used for illegal purposes.
Yeah, right -- not likely. Even though Silhouette itself is not illegal,
heck I know a ton of MacOS users that use it illegially.
And that's how Nintendo has a case. Even though the emulators and the
documentation is not in of itself illegal, it is used for illegal purposes.
When it is used for such purposes it takes away from the money that Nintendo
makes.
For these reasons, I see their actions as being totally reasonable. Sure, I'm
against them -- I think it hurts them so little that lawyer bills would cost
more than the money they would lose to crack emulation of Nintendo systems
altogheter, but their actions in this matter seem to be totally right, just,
and reasonable. They are only upholding the law and trying to protect
themselves to what they see as a possible threat. We're a possible threat
anyway!
I have never played a 32-bit or 64-bit emulator. I'll be testing PSEmu for
Duddie pretty soon since I do use Windows 98 (legally, BTW) but I probably
won't use it just for hardcore fun. I do use -- and enjoy -- many 8-bit and
16-bit systems, which I emulate with software downloaded from Archaic Ruins
and use nearly every day. But doing that takes no money away from Nintendo,
since I wouldn't (and couldn't) buy the games from them anyway.
What it all comes down to is that everyone needs to stop saying that Nintendo
is evil. They are in this business to make money, a totally reasonable goal,
and they see us as a threat to that goal (and sooner or later, we probably
will be...). Trying to crack down on emulation is, especially from their
point of view, a just and reasonable action.
Besides, if Nintendo stopped making games and systems, there would be nothing
from Nintendo for us to emulate anyway, so just stop complaining!
|
