[Fedora-legal-list] Free emulators that run free games

[Damian Yerrick]

Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
> it is clear that the use of such emulators is primarily for use
> with non-free ROMs [with] few exceptions

By that logic, the use of media player software is primarily for
use with non-free music, which outnumbers music distributed under
a license for free cultural works.  And the primary purpose for
a PDF viewer is for viewing non-free documents, which outnumber
documents distributed under a license for free cultural works.

If the issue is with the fact that only 27 games work, I can
dig up more exceptions.  For example, an NES emulator is useful
to run software produced for the PlayPower project:
<http://playpower.org/>

> it is not worth the likely risk of lawsuit to include
> "Nintendo" emulators

On what grounds would NOA sue Red Hat?  As for patent infringement,
the patents on the NES expired half a decade ago.  As for
contributory copyright infringement, as I understand it, an emulator
packaged with one or more free games appears to "be capable of
substantial noninfringing uses", as the U.S. Supreme Court put
it in Sony v. Universal.  Another popular GNU/Linux distribution
demonstrates this noninfringing use by packaging a free NES game;
is it in trouble as well?
<https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/maverick/+package/efp>

To put it another way, what's the specific legal difference between
FCEUX and DOSBox?
<http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/buildinfo?buildID=174907>

Once we characterize this difference, can someone update the
Licensing/SoftwareTypes page to mention emulators that will not be
packaged despite the availability of free software for the emulated
platform?

-- 
Damian Yerrick