Nintendo pursues ROM sites in a massive $ 100 million lawsuit to prevent piracy, illegal emulation

With the huge popularity of their retro-inspired NES and SNES Classic consoles, Nintendo seems to be more protective of their content.

Nintendo has been notoriously strict in protecting its intellectual property in the past. An example was the so-called "lock chip," or NES10 chip, implemented in the original hardware profile of the NES Entertainment System (NES) to prevent third-party developers from creating unauthorized software for the system in the 1980s. Nintendo now has launched a new massive lawsuit to protect the same thing, according to Nintendo Enthusiast .

Named in the grand trial are two ROM distribution sites, LOVEROM.com and LoveRetro.co. Both sites offered game file downloads known as ROMs in the emulation community, files that could be loaded by free and widely available emulation software to play original Nintendo games on computers, mobile phones, tablets and even classic NES and SNES consoles. 19659004] Emerging in popularity from the mid-to-late 1990s with software offerings such as NESticle, NESA and iNES, the software emulation of the original Nintendo Entertainment System titles was prevalent among players familiar with the practice. The game's files – ROMs ending with the notable extension.nes file, a practice that continues to this day – were frequently exchanged via FTP, IRC, Usenet, and the first Web servers.

Later, the refinement of technology and the proliferation of peer-to-peer file transfer services starting with Napster, Kazaa and Limewire, and currently with BitTorrent, meant that emulation was becoming a reality. facto of the retrogaming culture. Sites such as CoolRom.com continue to meet this need, although entire ROMsets, meaning the entire NES catalog (and SNES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, and Arcade cabinet) can be mass-uploaded with a mouse click, and loaded almost immediately afterwards.

The benefits of ROMs compared to their original counterparts were numerous, including the state-backup feature, which allowed players to save their game at any point in the game and to recharge it indefinitely until a goal is reached. a particularly imposing leader or making an almost impossible jump

. Their legality, however, has always been questioned. An urban myth propagated by many in the emulation community, and one that still exists today, suggests that it's actually legal to own a digital ROM copy of a game if the # 1 39, we have a legitimate copy of the game in physical form. According to Nintendo, however, this is clearly not the case from a legal point of view, as evidenced by a statement from their website. It may however be legal to create or "rip" a ROM from the base cartridge for personal use as long as the user does it himself, but obtaining the ROM from the 39. A third party provider is clearly illegal and constitutes an act of piracy. diagram provided.

Nintendo specifically laid charges to both LOVEROM.com and LoveRetro.co that they were hosting several counterfeit items, ranging from BIOS files relevant to Nintendo hardware – a way to hack consoles – as well as Super Mario Bros. visual arts and elements ripped directly from the games in addition to hosting ROM files.

Since the writing of this article, LOVEROM.com has been removed and the domain has been put on sale. LoveRetro.co remains operational, but the future of the highly targeted ROM host is not clear. Few have the resources to face the Nintendo technology giant in court, and ROM sites generally do not generate substantial revenue as they address a non-captive audience with several alternative options.

According to the Nintendo Life