Is it legal yet to share iso's?

[nickbailuc]

Games for the DC are expensive in my area, so I download them and burn them on CD's. When my laser will die, I will buy the GDEmu, but is this legal? My brother who is a big SEGA fan says that since the console is discontinued, copyrights have expired but I read that it takes 60 years for copyright to something pass. Could someone explain if it's legal in terms of copyrights to download and share iso's of games? I know Nintendo still messes with their old consoles and copyrights and they are strict about it, but what about SEGA? Maybe they allow it since they're not in the console business anymore?

[pcwzrd13]

It's illegal. Anything copyrighted after 1977 lasts for the life of the creator + 70 years. The only way it would be legal is if the company that created the game and holds the copyrights went out of business, the rights were never transferred to any other company, and it's been 70 years since they went under. In other words, it will be at least 2068 before any Dreamcast games are public domain (not copyrighted and legal to share).

[nickbailuc]

It's illegal. Anything copyrighted after 1977 lasts for the life of the creator + 70 years. The only way it would be legal is if the company that created the game and holds the copyrights went out of business, the rights were never transferred to any other company, and it's been 70 years since they went under.

what about sega mega drive games? I know that a developer released instructions on how to play md games or something and it came in the disk of a dreamcast game

[pcwzrd13]

what about sega mega drive games? I know that a developer released instructions on how to play md games or something and it came in the disk of a dreamcast game

Of course the developer has complete control over their creation so if they choose to share it freely then they can do that, but that's very rare. The same rules apply to Mega Drive games since they were released after 1977.