[doko-desuka]

You can find plenty of threads by searching for 'emulator'.

• Are the game companies getting paid for any of the ROMs being downloaded and played through Kodi? Doesn't this constitute piracy? (The wiki claims it's "Fair Use").
  
• Why can threads be made in these forums about this subject, and get more than a few posts from Kodi team members themselves, but no threads for support on TV \ movie piracy?
  
• Is this the way it is because TV \ movie companies do go after litigation, and game companies not so much?
  

Some of the games that you can play through these emulation add-ons can be on sale by their own developers (Nintendo, Sony). This means the emulation add-ons are directly affecting them. These add-ons would therefore fail the "HOW DO I KNOW IF IT'S PIRATED CONTENT?" guidelines from the free movie \ tv shows support sticky thread.

I love Kodi, but disagree with the self-righteous tone from the official Kodi statements because of this.

[sectune]

So according to your flawed logic an emulator is illegal because it can be used to play illegal roms? The only addon I can find which has some posts related to roms is the excellent IAGL addon from zach. You can do a quick google search for archive.org and it will clarify the legal situation for you. Never understood such posts, especially as judging from your previous posts you are writing an addon for playing "split video files" from web. Don't you think it is a little hypocritical from your side as well? See, you can quickly spin around things out of context, that is exacly what you did with your post as well.

[doko-desuka]

Why are you willfully ignoring my 'how do I know if it's pirated content' point?
1) Nintendo still sells S. Mario 64.
2) Rom Collection Browser shows that game on a screenshot on its user guide. That's a pretty clear demonstration of what they expect users to do with their plugin.
I'm not against R.C.B., I'd probably use it myself as well. I'm saying this to illustrate my point that there's a double standard in the community in favor of games.
 

 especially as judging from your previous posts you are writing an addon for playing "split video files" from web. Don't you think it is a little hypocritical from your side as well?

This sounds off-topic to me, like you're trying to sneak in an ad-hominem. I never said what are the video files in my thread (I did say where they come from, 'my own website', but that doesn't work in your favor so of course you have to not mention it at all. Don't worry, I understand).

[Klojum]

Why are you willfully ignoring my 'how do I know if it's pirated content' point?

You are ignoring a basic principle: people are allowed to have their own opinion. And that opinion can differ from your opinion.

I love Kodi, but disagree with the self-righteous tone from the official Kodi statements because of this.

I'm not against R.C.B., I'd probably use it myself as well.

So what is your point of this whole thread?! "There is a double standard, but I don't mind it." ? You've given me a confuse.

This sounds off-topic to me, like you're trying to sneak in an ad-hominem.

The fact that you had to add a Wikipedia link to the latin expression shows that either you either think we're too stupid to know what it means, or you want to show off your 'extensive' vocabulary even more... (Or did you simply google it beforehand?) Either way, I'm not impressed.

[sectune]

Just to clarify, The example of an add-on of yours I brought up was not meant to imply that you do illegal stuff with it, of course you would not. It was meant as an example of your way of posting stuff in a toxic way and as an example that you can spin things out of context. I am not a native English speaker as you might be able to tell, but I am sure that you would be capable of addressing this topic in a more suitable and neutral manner to allow for productive discussion. I am not affiliated with Kodi in any way and I speak only for myself but the way you raised this topic, the devs could rightfully feel insulted because of the hard work and free time they put into this project.

[doko-desuka]

So what is your point of this whole thread?! "There is a double standard, but I don't mind it." ? You've given me a confuse.

My point with this thread is to argue that future official statements should also include "emulating games" as the other significant illegal thing that people usually do with Kodi, besides video streaming.

[DJ_Izumi]

In a lot of regions it's actually perfectly legal to produce your own ROM files.  Here in Canada for example I can 'Format Shift' my game carts into ROM files with a reader and that's perfectly legal.  While our copyright law does not technically allow for fair use where ENCRYPTION or DRM must be bypassed, there's no such technologies used in classic game carts.  This ALSO goes for some official emulation setups such as the Sega Genesis Classics on Steam.  These contain ROMs within unencrypted PAK files, once extracted from the PAK files they are compatible with any common emulator.  From a number of re-releases of games that contain unencrypted data, I have quite the folder of legitimate roms.  Cartridge dumping hardware, which I don't have, isn't so hard to get either these days.

Ironically, since any Blu-Ray I own has AACS, I do technically violate Canadian copyright law when format shifting my discs to MKVs for my server, but stripping ROMs out of a Steam collection is all good.

[Martijn]

I love Kodi, but disagree with the self-righteous tone from the official Kodi statements because of this.

Live with it.
Our forum, our rules.

[Hitcher]

Piracy addons link you to illegally hosted content.
Kodi emulators don't link you to illegally hosted content.

[PatK]

I pulled the rom code from hardware that I owned (at a time when there was such a thing as ownership) and after the company (Commodore) disolved, there was really no one to ask, so for my own use I sometimes emulate systems that I own on modern equipment. Fair use, or should we be paying someone for inventing the language? We aknowledge Kodi as a software product can be missused, but the forum encourages legitimate experimentation with equipment users own and dissuades conversation that might be in contrevention to forum rules.

The Kodi forum rules and policy has been developed to keep the communication channel open with users, not to push the legal envelope. 

If this comes off as a self-righteous tone, too bad.

[natethomas]

Piracy addons link you to illegally hosted content.
Kodi emulators don't link you to illegally hosted content.

 This is pretty much the answer to this whole thread. Kodi has always maintained an entirely neutral stance on piracy. What people do in their own time is up to them. The only thing Kodi doesn't do is help users acquire pirated material.

[doko-desuka]

Okay, well... thanks for the discussion.

[amrothery]

As an aside, the company @Games produces a couple of handheld videogame systems, one for Atari 2600 games, and the other for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Both units come with dozens of built-in games. Both units also include an SD Card slot for playing games that aren't built in. ROMS, in other words. For at least those two systems, if the current IP holders don't care I'm not sure anyone else needs to either.