Quote Originally Posted by Satoshi_Matrix View Post
Well hold on there. NES reproductions of the Mother 1 English prototype aren't "bootlegs". the term "bootleg" carry a negative connotation, and the term itself means a product that is a direct copy of inferior quality sold to steal sales of the original product away by fooling the buyer.

A more accurate term would be a legal reproduction. The prototype Mother 1 translated into English that is the basis of EarthBound Zero has no legal standing as copyrights for it were never put into place and the game cannot be legally purchased in any fashion.

Therefore, its abandonware and free public use until such time as
A. The game is released on some download service such as Wii Virtual Console (extremely unlikely)
B. Copyright steps are taken to actually cover it.

EarthBound Zero will probably be forever ignored by Nintendo of America as the game is too similar to Earth Bound/Mother 2 and they won't even release THAT game.
Bootleg means something produced without permission from the proper rights holders. Earthbound/Mother isn't in the public domain, you aren't allowed to produce and distribute anything from patched fan translations(you're supposed to patch it yourself from a copy you own and backed up yourself) to fan games involving the characters. In any case, I thought most copies of Earthbound Zero were taken from an official prototype, not from the previous fan translation so someone owns the rights to it.

You might be allowed to back up your own Japanese famicom copy and patch it yourself, but I'm pretty sure buying a copy that someone else produced isn't exactly legal. Maybe if you supplied the materials yourself, mailed them with a prepaid return envelope to someone to assemble for you(for free) it would be ok, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. It's nice that Nintendo currently hasn't done anything to stop people from selling bootlegs of the game, but they could if they really wanted to.

It also should be noted that the version of Mother included in the somewhat recent Japanese GBA port is the English NES Earthbound Zero version which was re-translated back into Japanese. There are several differences in that version of the game compared to the original Famicom version, so it hasn't been completly forgotten about or abandoned.

So yes, bootleg seems to be an accurate description.