Why is homebrew for DS (or any game system) legality?

[billdotson]

Is homebrew for the DS (or any other game system, primarily handheld) legal or illegal?

I am asking for the United States but feel free to post its legality in other nations if you know it.

[markbuntu]

You bought it, you can hack it.

What you cannot do is distribute the proprietary code it comes with.

[DOS4dinner]

It's 100% legal so long as the homebrew contains only user-made code, and no other Nintendo (Or sony, etc) code of any sort.

Note, however, that it does void your warranty. The company may also stop you from using certain services, but only if it says so in a EULA of some sort. (They can't brick the machine, however).

[Tipped OuT]

As long as it doesn't involve piracy, it's legal.

The PSP is hackable, but people abuse this with the ability to download a PSP game ISO and run it off their memory stick.

[AllRadioisDead]

As long as it doesn't involve piracy, it's legal.

The PSP is hackable, but people abuse this with the ability to download a PSP game ISO and run it off their memory stick.
I admit having a mod card for my DS. To be honest, I think it's great to have all my games on one cartridge and be able to play quake/snes/nes/gba/gb games wherever I go.

[RichardLinx]

I got a flashcard (acekardRPG) for my DS mainly because I wanted to be able to play music and movies on it, but having access to unlimited games, linux, and a multitude of emulators and applications was a plus. And yes, homebrew is legal, but pirating games isn't. Not that it will really stop anyone from pirating over priced games..

My DS broke a long time ago though. :(

[AllRadioisDead]

I got a flashcard (acekardRPG) for my DS mainly because I wanted to be able to play music and movies on it, but having access to unlimited games, linux, and a multitude of emulators and applications was a plus. And yes, homebrew is legal, but pirating games isn't. Not that it will really stop anyone from pirating over priced games..

My DS broke a long time ago though. :(
I have the same card.

[CJ Master]

I have a DannyKard2i, I use it to play all my games in one card, it's handy~

To be honest, there's next to no actually good DS Homebrew. Emulators almost never work for me.

[RichardLinx]

I have a DannyKard2i, I use it to play all my games in one card, it's handy~

To be honest, there's next to no actually good DS Homebrew. Emulators almost never work for me.

I played Nes, Snes, and Gameboy games in an emulator without issue on DS. Movies and Music were fine with the "Moonshell" application. And there were a few other great homebrew applications out there. Oh, I also played Wolf3D and Hexan on it! And there was a nifty Voip app for it, and a nice IRC client too.

Great, now I miss DS homebrew. :(

[Metallion]

I played Nes, Snes, and Gameboy games in an emulator without issue on DS. Movies and Music were fine with the "Moonshell" application. And there were a few other great homebrew applications out there. Oh, I also played Wolf3D and Hexan on it! And there was a nifty Voip app for it, and a nice IRC client too.

Great, now I miss DS homebrew. :(

Which snes emulator were you using? I tried two of them and neither really worked well. Most worthwhile snes games are ported to the GBA fortunately though. :)

Just for the record, I think the DS has awesome homebrew. Emulators for the NES, Game Boy and Sega Mega Drive are working perfectly for me as is Moonshell. I can even use the thing as a wireless joypad for my computer if I want. :)

[Xbehave]

While under any sane legal system you it would be legal as long as you didn't pirate, I think you'll find that the DMCA makes it illegal in the US because you are getting round copy protection on the DS & games


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures (commonly known as digital rights management or DRM) that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself.
I'm not sure if that 100% applies, but producing/distributing such tools is illegal in the US. On the plus side nobody cares.

[billdotson]

Why hasn't the DMCA been overturned? It spits right in the face of fair use. If I buy a DS, PSP, xbox 360, toaster, etc. I should be able to do absolutely whatever I want on it. I BOUGHT the hardware, it is not being leased to me. If you get an emulator and pirate games for it that should most definitely be illegal. However, if I own the game and own the game system that it plays on I should be able to use a ROM to play it without having to lug a different device around. Even more so, if my old gameboy breaks I should still be able to play my games without having to hunt down a crappy used one.

A company should not be allowed to do a whole bunch of **** to their hardware so that we can only do what they tell us we can do with it. I hope it is apparent to everyone that even though these laws are in place people are still pirating games. Why haven't these laws prevented piracy? Oh, wait a minute, because you aren't going to stop piracy. Even if you could it would require a complete revocation of user rights. People should definitely NOT be arrested for using a non-Nintendo web browser on their DS. Has anyone looked at the price for the Opera DS browser? I just looked at buy.com and it is $99 for the DS lite version. That is absolutely criminal. Whatever happened to free trade? That sounds like you get one choice and if you don't like it then too bad.

Everything is about protecting the rights of the big corporations who already have enough money to do whatever they want to anyway. What, you wanted to make a backup of your $35 blu-ray movie? You must be a hardened criminal if you don't want to have to pay $35 for another copy if it happens to get scratched or stops working.

I am not saying that all of these awful restrictions are in place due to piracy alone (greed and anti-competitiveness of companies has to do with it) but any time I hear of someone playing their cool pirated video game or movie it reminds me that they are part of the problem. Are there really that many people out there that don't think twice about stealing?