Yes there is, you said roms (inferring, rom distribution sites) were necessary for translations. They are not. I have a translated Famicom Rom I ripped myself, no piracy needed.
I didn't say that. I said that without ROMs they wouldn't be a thing, or at the very least not the thing they've become historically. I'm not talking about translations only, even if you insist in exclusively mentioning those. If each and every person had to dump the ROM of a game before applying a patch, specially in the 90's and early 00's, the great majority of fan projects related to ROMs would have died before arrival. Like that wouldn't have been expensive and oppressive as hell back in the day. You have mentioned a favorable example, and it's $70... now. I mean, really?
That's a big reason in favor of it being an extremely unrealistic and out of touch point of view. Not to mention that example was only for
one game console!
Boo fucking hoo at 'unrealistic' It's unrealistic for me to have a new Ferrari, but if I want one without stealing it I have to pay what it costs.
How do you enforce
"anyone who wants to play a fan translation, mod, or anything ROM-related must dump the ROM themselves first"? How do you even enforce it?
How is it that fear-mongering regarding movies and music piracy amounted to nothing, but legitimately better offerings like Spotify and Netflix completely changed everything for the better? How could all those restrictive, intimidation-driven, and short-sighted tactics possibly fail? And how is it that they haven't eradicated piracy in videogames yet, and multiplied sales exponentially...?
Intellectual property laws.
Show me the specific parts where such scenarios are penalized, then.
And who is supposed to authorize that, exactly? Dumping a ROM is supposedly a right, but sharing it with a single person is "unauthorized"? Even if that person has the game too?
If you can't tell a difference well I have no idea what to say, as they are clearly different, one involves distribution of an unauthorised copy to those who never paid for the game.
You didn't understand what I said. How are you supposed to tell, if every "ROM distribution site" were to disappear, that a ROM that someone has is one that has been dumped by themselves, or what ROMs are borrowed from another person, or how many ROMs are being shared privately, including uploading legit personal ROM dumps to a file hosting site? And then downloaded by people that may or may not have a copy of the game, or a personal dump of their own...?
Of course. And what do you do with those people, now that you confirmed both cases are piracy?
This?
Here is another one: If you buy a game, dump a ROM of it yourself, and then you sell the game but keep the ROM for personal use... Is that piracy?
And last but not least, how does it matter to have an authentic copy of an old game, to either justify downloading or having/dumping a ROM of it, if buying it second-hand doesn't even give a single penny to the company or makers of the game? Sometimes, the companies don't even exist anymore! And rereleases in general only cover a small fraction of a game console library. Some physical copies of old games have their prices skyrocket. And sadly, having a game since childhood or its original release doesn't give any more money to the respective company or authors just by having it... or by dumping a single copy of it, that you don't share or let be played by anyone but you.
Who is being benefited by this persecution and ostracism regarding ROMs...?
And again, I'm 100% against making money off illicitly distributing others' work.
