ESA protected Roms?

[NEScollector1982]

I was looking around for ROMs this morning and found several titles "ESA protected". What is this garbage?

I understand the ESA is the entertainment software association or something, but this "protection" only covers mainline series such as "Mario", "Zelda" and "Castlevania".

Is it any less 'illegal' to download ROMs from nintendo/konami developed games, rather than ones from GameTek? Not that anyone was ever prosecuted from downloading ROMs, though.

I would assume that ROM sites "protect" these ROMs from being hosted on their server as an agreement with the ESA so that the ESA won't come after them to have the site shut down.

Anyone else familiar with this?

[roushimsx]

Is it any less 'illegal' to download ROMs from nintendo/konami developed games, rather than ones from GameTek? Not that anyone was ever prosecuted from downloading ROMs, though.

Nope, it's just as illegal to download from one publisher as the next. There's a small handful of ones that have been released as freeware (or other similar license), such as Zero Tolerance, but they're few and far between.

Websites haven't really been the main distribution method for ROMs for a few years, though. Most people tend to get them from torrents while others prefer to use either the Usenet or private FTPs.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[7th lutz]

Is it any less 'illegal' to download ROMs from nintendo/konami developed games, rather than ones from GameTek? Not that anyone was ever prosecuted from downloading ROMs, though.

Anyone else familiar with this?

It is illegal to download rom from all publishers unless the publisher or the developer gives the okay to download it. Although some game publishers no longer exist, companies might of acquired the trademark rights or publishing rights of the game.

The only legal roms are from freewareor roms from homebrew games.

[Gentlegamer]

Yeah, romhustler used to be tops for ROMS, now practically every game listed is "ESA Protected." If they aren't going to provide the ROM, then they should delete it from their directory.