Topic: Could you be arrested for using roms?

[gettajob0007]

If a Policeman was checking your computer for some reason and found a proud collection of roms, does this give him an ideal reason to arrest you? If so what is the posible penalty you could get?

[melfice666]

depends on the country you live in
in my case I would not get arrested for I have no roms on my computer

[masterDS64]

I know masses of pirated movies and music could land you a rather heavy fine and to be stripped of those files can land you in trouble...but they mostly focus on that rather than games despite the fact game piracy is just as high here in Australia.

My mate had been raided once...stupid Werribee police didn't check if he had other external drives and ended up only lossing a small portion of what he had XD

[calvin_0]

dont they need a warrant to search your laptop and computer?

[masterDS64]

dont they need a warrant to search your laptop and computer?

They would yes...in person.


That said, from a few post here and from friends, it seems that certain downloadable content *cough*TORRENTS*cough* is tracked, once it's detected, they contact the isp, shut you down, with a letter of cease and desist, stating to STOP downloading and to remove the content from your computer.

That said, it's (according to a user here...) just something in the torrent that tracks your ip adress (the risk of torrents is people can see your ip adress) and an email is auto generated...but would you take the risk?

I keep all of my files off my Laptop, that way a quick format will hide my work XD

[Loonylion]

I keep all of my files off my Laptop, that way a quick format will hide my work XD

Its possible to recover data from formatted drives.

[BadassFreakingOverlord]

Its possible to recover data from formatted drives.

care to enlighten us?
and
i wonder what would be my reaction when a policeman kicked my door and raid me

[Loonylion]

formatting doesn't erase data, it just recreates the filesystem (full format) or clears the FAT/MFT (quick format) rendering the data inaccessible because the filesystem doesnt know about it. the data itself is still on the drive and can be recovered with the right software.

[BadassFreakingOverlord]

so you could actually put more files to your drive than the advertised capacity?

[Loonylion]

no, they gradually get overwritten by new data.

[BadassFreakingOverlord]

i see time heals all wounds...

so i have not heard any rom downloaders here in my country maybe there too busy with dvd piracies

[calvin_0]

formatting doesn't erase data, it just recreates the filesystem (full format) or clears the FAT/MFT (quick format) rendering the data inaccessible because the filesystem doesnt know about it. the data itself is still on the drive and can be recovered with the right software.

dont they have a program that allow you to fill your hard disk with junk data after format? that will surely make the hard disk unrecoverable to data forensic

[masterDS64]

Its possible to recover data from formatted drives.

True, I already knew about this...but I prefer my hard drive to remain empty as much as I can anyway XD


The laptop just holds it until I can be bothered to move to one of my 1tb drives.

[Loonylion]

dont they have a program that allow you to fill your hard disk with junk data after format? that will surely make the hard disk unrecoverable to data forensic

yes, not after format but an alternative method of formatting that doesnt just wipe the FAT/MFT but also overwrites the entire drive with random bits multiple times.

[garychencool]

Why would they bother raiding you? You don't have any drugs! Unless you with a gang of pirates or run a ring or site of some sort (like this one). Either way, I think the police would rather raid drugs than illegal roms/mpvies. In Pacific Mall, pirated movies, etc everywhere!

[MR4Y]

Yes and also pay a lifetime indenization on some countries. Every entertainment company treats "pirates"(and even normal people charged for piracy) as terrorists.

[Mein]

I couldn't be arrested, in my country even roms are legally sold.

[miros]

I can almost guarantee that you will not get arrested from downloading and playing roms.  The things that you have to do to be arrested, for example in the US, would be to upload the pirated file, host the file, or try to pass of the file as an official product.  Otherwise, the government agencies will over look you, justifying to themselves that the time and resources needed to arrest and sentence you would cost more than they would make from the lawsuit(s).
miros

[DragonQuester]

lol I thought of this a while back as well, I think you would be fined

[Loonylion]

Honestly, if the police have a warrant to confiscate your computer and search it then roms are probably the least of your problems.

[MR4Y]

Honestly, if the police have a warrant to confiscate your computer and search it then roms are probably the least of your problems.

100% agreed.

[miros]

Honestly, if the police have a warrant to confiscate your computer and search it then roms are probably the least of your problems.

I could not agree more.
miros

[gaynorvader]

Isn't it legal to have a ROM of a game that you own? As long as you are only using it for personal use and not distributing it.

[Loonylion]

Isn't it legal to have a ROM of a game that you own? As long as you are only using it for personal use and not distributing it.

only legal if you made the rom yourself, not if you downloaded it.

[gaynorvader]

only legal if you made the rom yourself, not if you downloaded it.

Like to see them prove I didn't!