Emulation
OcUK does not allow or condone talk of emulation, due to a number of reasons:
1. ROMS are for the most part illegal (or at LEAST in a gray area), this is due to a number of factors. While your Sega Mega Drive (Genesis if you're from outside of Europe) games may not seem able to turn a profit, remember that Sega are themselves still selling the games (therefore making profit, therefore not happy if you don't buy their products and download them). Examples including xbox arcade games, and the Sega Collections.
2. Emulators (the pieces of software required to play the games). Firstly, some require console bios' to function. To get that legally you'd have to dump your OWN console bios, which let's face it, 99.9 percent of people aren't going to do. And then in Europe (thanks to our slightly different laws on copyright compared to the US) it's a gray area. Secondly, some emulation is becoming copyrighted (Nintendo are themselves copy-writing emulators). Don't believe how they feel and think we're making it up? Read HERE:
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms
I personally know of shops who've been legally threatened because they've IMPORTED games to sell, let alone dealing with emulation. I also know of someone else who has been sued because of selling something to help play homebrew games.
OcUK's stance shall not change on this unless the law does. Please cease any discussion of Emulation, whether this is emulation of a 'modern' console such as a PS2, or an older console such as a Master System.
This sticky will be updated with more links soon, but for now consider this a warning. *NOTE* This also includes fan made remakes. Unless they've the blessing of the original developer.
