One of Sony's justifications for filing a lawsuit against Connectix, developer not only of the Virtual PC but also of the Virtual Game Station (VGS) PlayStation emulator for the Macintosh, was that the VGS did not emulate the PlayStation's anti-piracy chip. this infringes on our intellectual property rights, and that's something we actively protect.' In other words, emulators should be banned because they contribute to piracy byĮncouraging the illegal distribution of pirated software, over the Internet, for the platform being emulated.Įmulators make software piracy possible by circumventing anti-piracy countermeasures on video game systems.Įvery Sony PlayStation video game system comes with a special security chip installed that prevents the unit from playing pirated PlayStation games (copies made from the original using a CD burner, for example).

Nintendo spokeswoman Beth Llewelyn best summarized the IDSA's stance when she commented that 'emulators are illegal, and they continue to support counterfeiting and piracy. Emulators, in making it possible for users to run such software, encourage users to post that software on the Internet as a result. The IDSA argues that if there were no emulators, there would be no demand for pirated Nintendo 64 games - or pirated software for any other emulator-supported platform, for that matter - on the Internet. Kind of piracy would not exist were it not for emulators. That the $6.3 billion interactive entertainment industry loses $3.2 billion a year to software piracy, including this kind of Internet software piracy. The Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) alleges

Posting pirated software on the Internet so that it can be run on an emulator is commonplace nowadays - and also costly. The purpose of this is to provide those who download the emulators with software that they can use the emulators on. The result of this lack of software, the argument goes, is that it is now a common phenomenon for websites that offer emulators for download to also offer, for download, pirated software for the platforms being emulated. What's the point of downloading, say, a Nintendo 64 emulator if you don't have any Nintendo 64 games to use it on? This is because an emulator is useless if you don't have any software to run on it. Their main arguments:Įmulation opponents allege that emulators contribute to and encourage software piracy. Opponents of emulation argue that emulators are unqualifiedly illegal and should be banned.

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