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ROMhacking.net shuts down after 20 years; database has been moved to the Internet Archive
(alternativeto.net)
this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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Hi there.
I'm a bit hesitant about allowing or not linking to the website archives.
For the time being, and while we discuss about it among the mods, I'd like to ask you to refrain from posting any link to said archive.
If we decide to allow it, I'll restore the comments containing said links I've removed.
Thank you for your understanding.
Final Edit :
After carefully considering both sides arguments, and talking about it with LM admins and the mod team, we decided to keep the direct links removed.
LM allows meta-discussions around piracy, but not linking to possible pirated content. As we do not have the means and resources to check the whole 12Go dump to make sure no there is no copyrighted content in one of those Rom Hacks. More information here.
Rom Hacking is a gray area which is, depending on your location and/or interpretation of your local law, allowed or not. LW is under EU Jurisdiction (see that part of the TOS), and has to abide with rather restrictive law on that matter. There is unfortunately no broad "fair use" exception in that jurisdiction, only specific exceptions listed here. None of them seem to be applicable to Rom Hacks, which mean that they are to be considered potentially illegal under LW jurisdiction.
If it's a romhacking site, it wont have the actual ROMs, just the patches. It never would have survived 20 years if it had been hosting ROMs.
You got a good point here. I'll take that into consideration.
From what I see in the archive link I posted, it only contains patches, not playable games, neither original nor patched. You need a copy of the game already to make any use of it.
I'll take a look tomorrow. I'm UTC+2 (I just can't sleep right now 😅), so I'm not yet in the required state of mind to go and check all of that.
That's correct. The entire archive is only about 12GB; it couldn't possibly contain the full games.
You don't need to have the full game to be considered as piracy. Anything allowing to break a DRM could be considered as such.
Edit :
I understand that most of you do not agree with that, and I do too, but as a mod I have to put my feelings on the matter aside and put the community and lemmy.world interest first. If we get DMCA (or the EU equivalent), consequences could be quite significant for this community or the server itself.
You can find a more specific explanation of my stance here :
https://lemmy.world/comment/11587381
Saying you're cross usually means angry.
Oh, my bad 😂
I meant that I was hesitant.
As you can see, English is not my main language.
Two Irish nuns were sitting in their car at a traffic light when a bunch of rowdy drunks pulled up alongside.
"Hey, show us your tits you bloody penguins!" shouted one of the drunks.
The Mother Superior turns to Sister Margaret and says "I don't think they know who we are. Show them your cross!"
So Sister Margaret rolls down her window and shouts, "Sod off you little fucking wankers before I get out and rip your goddam balls off!"
Sister Margaret looks back at the Mother Superior and asks, "Was that cross enough?".
🤣