Question about legality of selling iPhone on eBay with NES games preinstalled

[wildonrio]

I want to sell a modded phone on eBay and I want to include some NES roms preinstalled. Is there any type of legal trouble I can get in by doing this?

Please only answer this question if you really know. I understand the knee-jerk reaction by most people to this question would be "Of course it's illegal!!!" but most people are wrong about a lot of things. If roms were really *that* illegal, why would TheOldComputer (EDIT: link removed) still be up and running this long without being shut down?

Anyway, thanks in advance. I think the phone would sell a lot better if I could include some games.

[Ramesh]

I want to sell a modded phone on eBay and I want to include some NES roms preinstalled. Is there any type of legal trouble I can get in by doing this?

Please only answer this question if you really know. I understand the knee-jerk reaction by most people to this question would be "Of course it's illegal!!!" but most people are wrong about a lot of things. If roms were really *that* illegal, why would www.theoldcomputer.com (http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary%27s/Emulation/NES/ROMs/NES_roms_summary.htm) still be up and running this long without being shut down?

Anyway, thanks in advance. I think the phone would sell a lot better if I could include some games.

First - You'll probably want to remove the link, b/c it IS against EiP Rules... It's not illegal if you OWN the games. So, assuming you don't own the games, yes, it's illegal. If you want concrete proof, I can't give it to you, but also saying that www.xxxxx.com (http://www.xxxxx.com) has them, so it HAS to be legal is a crap argument too.

Second - I would remove the ROM's and leave the apps and installer there. Let somone else find the ROM's and how to put them on there. It's not hard, and a simple Google search will pop up many answers and how to's.

Hope that helped some. At least, that's what I would do.

-Rxmxsh

[Ramesh]

To quote myself - Goolge is your friend...

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

Found that. There's your concrete. :2cool:

[wildonrio]

To quote myself - Goolge is your friend...

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

Found that. There's your concrete. :2cool:

You're right, that is pretty straight forward. Now I just wonder why Nintendo, being such a large company, wouldn't immediately shut down a website with such obviously illegal material available for download. I think the answer is, they just don't care. If it was GC or Wii games, then absolutely the site would be shut down in hours, but I think Nintendo is actually pretty passive with NES games, despite what their "official stance" is at that link you gave me. They have to say that to cover their hide legally, but since they are gaining NO MONEY from NES anymore, they really have no reason to care at all.

I am personally very thankful for rom technology. Without it, these old game cartridges would soon stop working and be lost forever. It would be stupid to never play these games again simply because the cartridge was too old.

Now if Nintendo were nice, they would gather all the roms and offer to sell them online, like a Nintendo iTunes for roms. That way people like myself could download them at a fair price in good conscience. Nintendo has just left me with no alternatives. (And I know you can get them on the Wii, but many people want other ways to play them without buying a Wii.)

[petalmom]

You're right, that is pretty straight forward. Now I just wonder why Nintendo, being such a large company, wouldn't immediately shut down a website with such obviously illegal material available for download. I think the answer is, they just don't care. If it was GC or Wii games, then absolutely the site would be shut down in hours, but I think Nintendo is actually pretty passive with NES games, despite what their "official stance" is at that link you gave me. They have to say that to cover their hide legally, but since they are gaining NO MONEY from NES anymore, they really have no reason to care at all.


So why are you selling your phone anyway? Thought you were enjoying your service with T-Mobile?

[wildonrio]

So why are you selling your phone anyway? Thought you were enjoying your service with T-Mobile?

Haha, I am! I'm gonna sell a new iPhone that I buy, not the one I have now. T-Mobile has been great, very satisfied.