EmuParadise has removed its entire library of retro game ROMs and ISOs

https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/2...roms-and-isos/

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For nearly two decades, EmuParadise has been the go-to place for quite a number of people in the emulation community. This is due to the site’s vast collection of ROMs and ISOs from many systems, dating all the way back from the Atari and NES eras, straight up to the Wii and PSP. But, things are different now.

The site’s creator recently put out an announcement on a website, titled “EmuParadise is Changing”. This announcement contained an explanation — the site will no longer host any games. Here’s an excerpt:

“It’s not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences. I cannot in good conscience risk the futures of our team members who have contributed to the site through the years. We run EmuParadise for the love of retro games and for you to be able to revisit those good times. Unfortunately, it’s not possible right now to do so in a way that makes everyone happy and keeps us out of trouble . . . . . You won’t be able to get your games from here for now. Where we go with this is up to us and up to you.”

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This news comes just a few weeks after Nintendo slapped a massive $100 million lawsuit against the owner of LoveROMS and LoveRETRO. These websites were very similar to EmuParadise, hosting a vast collection of retro games and emulators. Mere hours after the lawsuit was filed, both websites were taken offline. Interestingly enough, many responses from the community to the closure of these sites pointed to EmuParadise still being around as another trustworthy source of games. Obviously, that claim no longer applies. In addition to the fall of LoveROMS and LoveRETRO, Nintendo then had an online GameBoy Advance Emulator removed from GitHub.

It must be noted that EmuParadise’s announcement does not specifically denounce Nintendo as being a/the reason for the removal of all the games from the site, But, it has had run-ins with the Big N in the past. Back in June 2017, all of Nintendo’s first-party titles were taken down from EmuParadise’s library. So, taking the two aforementioned recent closures into account on top of last year’s scuffle, it wouldn’t be surprising if Nintendo does have a role to play in this announcement after all, but EmuParadise has yet to name any names. The fact of the matter is, the site was in violation of copyright laws. So, whoever forced the site to make this drastic move did have the legal grounds to do so, especially since EmuParadise was benefiting financially from hosting its library due to selling ad space.

Will this kill the emulation scene? Not exactly. Other sources still exist. However, this is a crippling blow nonetheless. EmuParadise was known not just for having a vast collection of games, but also being a safe source due to many other ROM/ISO sites being riddled with evasive ads and viruses. So, many in the community are going to have to find somewhere else to get their games if they’re still willing to make the effort.

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Welp...

Also some other ROM site (won't name it :​v) suddenly removed all their ROMs for Nintendo consoles without warning (but left in the downloads for other systems). So the impression I get is that sites are trying to stay away from Nintendo's sights.

That's shitty. Nintendo is just being Nazis at this point, even if it is in their rights to complain. I really liked EmuParadise. You could find arcade stuff and a number of DOS games.

Attitudes regarding roms have changed a lot since I first started messing around with emulation. When I first got an emulator (I forget which one but I think is was an Amiga emulator) people I talked to were all very hush hush about the whole thing. It seemed like the unwritten rule that people played the games they downloaded illegally but nobody talked about it, they just occasionally mentioned their 'backups'.
But lately people seem to be more open about the games they're pirating and they get very disappointed when their source of roms disappears.

I don't know what to make of EmuParadise taking roms down, but did anyone really think that the games would be freely (and illegally) available forever without there being any consequences?

Also, I don't think Nintendo are the first company to do this. Maybe I'm remembering this incorrectly, but I recall rom sites being contacted by Capcom and asked to take down any copies of Street Fighter 2.

Three more sites will spring up to take it's place - tis the way of the internet. If these games companies wanted to eradicate ROM piracy so badly, why not open up their own sites and allow their catalogue to be downloaded, for a fee of course?

I no longer download ROMs, ISOs, or even the simple BIOS files to run certain emulators, based on changes in attitude and conscience, but I know it's not the same conviction for everyone, and I do not care for the virtual console service itself or Nintendo's often-behind business practices. I no longer buy most of Nintendo's products these days, focusing mainly on Sony. The only reason I keep my Nintendo DS around is for Clubhouse Games multiplayer and the DS Kanji dictionary Nintendo made themselves, which I find to be a flexible alternative to the more expensive electronic dictionaries from Japan.

Or torrents. When Nintendo started with the lawsuits somebody wondered why people were still hosting them in sites (technically, if you can hide behind lots of layers it can be pretty hard to get the site taken down, but yeah... though torrents suck).

Although if we want to talk about attitudes... remember when Sega decided to literally provide a legal way to do ROM hacks for some of their games? o.O (that was probably the most drastic decision ever taken in the opposite direction)

nintendo being nintendo and yet people are still fan of these neo nazi's.

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Originally Posted by bultje112

nintendo being nintendo and yet people are still fan of these neo nazi's.

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Why do people still like Nintendo is beyond me!

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Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

Why do people still like Nintendo is beyond me!

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Why do people still like Disney despite their shady bullshit? Get 'em while they're young and people will never be able to see you as an enemy.
I've noticed on reddit especially you used to get nuked by downvotes for criticizing Nintendo. The hive-mind is starting to come around though.

The last 2 consoles from Nintendo that I’d bought new (not counting SNES Classic), were the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance SP. I got my Wii U (used in box) from eBay, after Nintendo stopped selling the console. I really don’t like the way Nintendo treats it supporters, and the thought of using Nintendo games in a YouTube video will probably get flagged by them.

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Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

Why do people still like Nintendo is beyond me!

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Originally Posted by bultje112

nintendo being nintendo and yet people are still fan of these neo nazi's.

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Some people are mature enough to separate the things they like from the people that produce them.

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Originally Posted by gamevet

I really don’t like the way Nintendo treats it supporters, and the thought of using Nintendo games in a YouTube video will probably get flagged by them.

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I'll agree with this.

I’d rather give my money to a company that listens to its consumers. I was shocked that Nintendo released another run of the NES Classic, after they had said there wouldn’t be one.

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Originally Posted by gamevet

I’d rather give my money to a company that listens to its consumers. I was shocked that Nintendo released another run of the NES Classic, after they had said there wouldn’t be one.

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...does that mean you bought one?

That was the rare instance of Nintendo listening to their fans.

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Originally Posted by The Jackal

If these games companies wanted to eradicate ROM piracy so badly, why not open up their own sites and allow their catalogue to be downloaded, for a fee of course?

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I'll let reddit used itsamamaluigi answer that:

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Of course not. Nintendo doesn't care about providing a quality product when it comes to retro games, they're all about protecting their IP. It's their right, of course, but don't think for a second this means that they will open up their vault of old games. They'll continue their woefully inadequate drip feed of overpriced, mediocre games that aren't even tied to an account, but to hardware, and then ask you to pay them again every time you migrate systems.

There's a reason people pirate Nintendo games so much, and it's not just because they're popular. Piracy is a symptom of bad business practices.

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Pretty much all of those megacorps are anti-consumer. They don't care one bit about the people that buys their games, the staff that actually worked really hard to make their games or even their own legacy and rich history.

CEO's and their big-shot lawyers and accountants don't have mundane concerns; it's not in their DNA. They're vampires and will do everything in their power to get what they want and protect what they have.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

...does that mean you bought one?

That was the rare instance of Nintendo listening to their fans.

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I have not. They still found a way to screw that up, by only packing one controller with the console and making it very hard to buy a second official controller. I’d rather spend the money on a boxed cart of Super C, which would cost about the same.

Wow!! EP goes waaay back. I downloaded the Sonic Adventure soundtrack from them a decade and a half+ ago.

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Originally Posted by gamevet

I have not. They still found a way to screw that up, by only packing one controller with the console and making it very hard to buy a second official controller.

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Yes, that is pretty stupid. They packed two controllers with the SNES Classic, I don't see why they wouldn't pony up for a two-controller NES package.

But I'm pretty sure the SNES controllers work on the NES Classic. Haven't bothered to test it.

Retro game repository EmuParadise says it’s finished distributing ROMs

https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/08/r...ributing-roms/

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“We will continue to be passionate retro gamers and will keep doing cool stuff around retro games, but you won’t be able to get your games from here for now,” reads an EmuParadise blog post. “Where we go with this is up to us and up to you.”

If you search EmuParadise’s library for games now, you’ll find that the site has already scrubbed away most of them for every system. WarioWare for the Game Boy Advance is gone, but so is Blackthorne for the 32X.

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As someone who has used EmuParadise and purchased retro games directly from Nintendo, I’m sad about this development. It was nice to know that if I ever wanted to try a game out for research or just because I felt like it, EmuParadise provided a way to do so. It was reliable and safe, and now I’m left wondering how I’ll track down some of the lesser known games.

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No doubt Nintendo want to stop people hacking their Snes Mini and want to pave the way for the N64 Mini.

There's just a market for retrogaming now where in the past there was just a bunch of nerds downloading their childhood roms. Just face it.

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Originally Posted by chilled

There's just a market for retrogaming now where in the past there was just a bunch of nerds downloading their childhood roms. Just face it.

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But its not just childhood roms. Its for Arcade games that were never ported to the home or not perfectly. This is a BIG loss and Nintendo are pure Evil and don't care about the core gamer or the good of the industry.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

Some people are mature enough to separate the things they like from the people that produce them.

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so you are "mature" enough to buy clothing made by children in bangladesh? what kind of flawed logic is that?

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Originally Posted by bultje112

so you are "mature" enough to buy clothing made by children in bangladesh? what kind of flawed logic is that?

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You missed the point of what he said and are taking it out of context and off topic.

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Originally Posted by Team Andromeda

But its not just childhood roms. Its for Arcade games that were never ported to the home or not perfectly. This is a BIG loss and Nintendo are pure Evil and don't care about the core gamer or the good of the industry.

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I'll add in DOS games or anything running from the LucasArts SCUMM engine. But yeah, losing arcade games is a huge blow.

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Originally Posted by sull56ivan2010

You missed the point of what he said and are taking it out of context and off topic.



I'll add in DOS games or anything running from the LucasArts SCUMM engine. But yeah, losing arcade games is a huge blow.

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Agreed add in games that were really rare and would be hard to buy even on eBay. This is a horrible move and all so Nintendo can carry on milking their sheep. Nintendo makes me sick.

I haven't seen anyone explain what they would do if they were in charge. I've already pointed out in another thread that there are obvious legal ramifications (with regard to maintaining ownership of any IP) of letting people pirate games. But even if we forget about that for a moment, if someone wanted to let rom sites continue without any consequences, how would anyone justify that to the board members and shareholders at Nintendo? Before someone makes some smartass reply, bear in mind that some of the rom sites operate at a profit, so you would have to sell the shareholders the idea that Nintendo's products should be given away for free to people who are profiting from them.

Decisions like those Nintendo have made recently aren't as simple as one individual just taking action on a whim. Companies are at the mercy of internal politics, shareholders and the law. People probably had a long discussion before they came to the conclusion that legal action was necessary. You may even find some people within the company who have no issue with old games being illegally distributed, they just have their hands tied due to copyright laws and a few key individuals breathing down their neck.

I don't understand why people get so emotional about the whole thing, its not like Nintendo are attacking you personally. But if Nintendo's actions really bother anyone, perhaps the best course of action, before you boycott Nintendo, is for you to join Nintendo's staff and work your way up the corporate ladder so that you can try to change the policies yourself.

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Originally Posted by bultje112

so you are "mature" enough to buy clothing made by children in bangladesh? what kind of flawed logic is that?

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Yeah, that’s the same... :roll:

To someone who likes Nintendo consoles and their franchises, why should they not spend money on it just because of stuff that Nintendo does behind the scenes to piss people off? That’s the flawed logic, right there. You might as well ask “Why do people love Lethal Weapon so much? Don’t they know that Mel Gibson is a huge racist???”

This stuff that Nintendo does irritates me as much as anyone else... but it doesn’t make me enjoy the games any less.

You and Team Andromeda are just Hate Boys. It’s douchey and ignorant, but just embrace that instead of hiding behind this narrative that Nintendo is some a much more evil and money-grubbing entity than the companies you do like.

Well I did not expect something like this to happen. I thought the world was past caring about websites distributing ROM's of games which have long stopped being for sale, decades ago.

I can understand where Nintendo is coming from if they want to SELL those games, in some form. But that still leaves most games for most retro consoles which will NOT be sold by Nintendo in modern times.

Plus the retro collector's market of physical games is thriving and Nintendo sure doesn't get a profit when someone buys an old SNES or NES cart from the 90's or 80's.

No doubt the decision to go after websites amounts to a culture war launched by Nintendo. They're warring against the idea that free ROM's belong floating around the internet, even for very outdated games, because they should be able to make $ from their back catalogue.

And no doubt it came down to a bunch of board meetings in which the Nintendo executives worked themselves up into a frenzy over all the theoretical MILLIONS of $$ they are theoretically using, whenever people download free ROM's. Nevermind that most of those downloads would not be something that people would want to actually spend $$ on, even if it was the only choice.

Thankfully I trust that the ROM's will still be out there on other sites, I want to have faith in the free sharing of info and content on the web. And I think most people want that too.

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Originally Posted by Ecco

Thankfully I trust that the ROM's will still be out there on other sites

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There will always be torrent sites, and for games and roms there are like dedicated torrent sites.
As long as you stay away from sites like the piratebay, nothing but nintendo kiddies there with their 12 favorite retro romz torrents.

If anything this shit is just going to drive people to take rom distribution underground where it came from originally. I'm not losing any sleep after this since Nintendo is gonna Nintendo. I respect they want to protect their IPs which is 100% within their rights. Just doing this is going to make a lot of people want to fuck with them more.

I'm not gonna rail on nintendo for this since the law is pretty clear that you need to protect your IP. What would be nice is if the law changed to favor the consumer rather than corporations which somehow have the same rights as people.

Copyright should last a maximum of 20 years. At least for a specific product. I don't mean disney losing the rights to mickey mouse necessarily, but a specific old mickey mouse cartoon? If anyone wants to make replicas they should be perfectly allowed as long as they make clear they're replicas and not the original.

Wouldn't that be nice? It's not like Nintendo and Disney wouldn't still be able to get companies and people to pay them for their old stuff, by tying them to other things.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

What would be nice is if the law changed to favor the consumer rather than corporations which somehow have the same rights as people.

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https://theconversation.com/how-huma...o-profit-74593

It's easy. Just assemble a group of average Joes, raise a couple of million zennys and use it to do some heavy lobbying and bribe lawmakers.

That's the most democratic way, where money wins in the end.

Here's Nintendo also protecting their interests:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-02-1584_en.htm

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It's the law, therefore it's right.

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lolz you fuckers just want free stuffff.

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When I bought my mint, pristine, sealed copy of Super Mario Dragoon Legend from a ebay scalper for a measly 272,45 zennys I did my part in supporting the wonderful retrogaming market and keeping it alive - without breaking the law, mind you.

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:shock:

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Originally Posted by Mad Moham

I haven't seen anyone explain what they would do if they were in charge. I've already pointed out in another thread that there are obvious legal ramifications (with regard to maintaining ownership of any IP) of letting people pirate games. But even if we forget about that for a moment, if someone wanted to let rom sites continue without any consequences, how would anyone justify that to the board members and shareholders at Nintendo? Before someone makes some smartass reply, bear in mind that some of the rom sites operate at a profit, so you would have to sell the shareholders the idea that Nintendo's products should be given away for free to people who are profiting from them.

Decisions like those Nintendo have made recently aren't as simple as one individual just taking action on a whim. Companies are at the mercy of internal politics, shareholders and the law. People probably had a long discussion before they came to the conclusion that legal action was necessary. You may even find some people within the company who have no issue with old games being illegally distributed, they just have their hands tied due to copyright laws and a few key individuals breathing down their neck.

I don't understand why people get so emotional about the whole thing, its not like Nintendo are attacking you personally. But if Nintendo's actions really bother anyone, perhaps the best course of action, before you boycott Nintendo, is for you to join Nintendo's staff and work your way up the corporate ladder so that you can try to change the policies yourself.

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When you lose more than just the Nintendo stuff on a ROM site, it gets frustrating. Arcades are dead and unless you go to a place like Galloping Ghost, the likelihood of finding a non Raw Thrills arcade machine that is working and playable is slim. There's a reason MAME is used a lot. Losing a lot of DOS related games is frustrating since not everyone keeps a Windows 3.1 or 95 computer near them. Flopped systems and CD systems aren't always guaranteed to work and prices for certain games are not going to drop anytime soon unless you're really desperate to spend 60 bucks or more on a Smash Bros or some obscure NES game from 1992.

Even if someone were to work up the ladder at Nintendo, they wouldn't have any real power. Look at fucking Reggie Fils-Aime. He's a puppet at this point for these dumb old fuckers in the Japan offices. If Nintendo really cares about their IPs, then they should stop being lazy and put all their old games that are completely owned by them on the Switch at a reasonable price. Having the complete Donkey Kong arcade game is a step in the right direction. I like most of their systems, but some of their decisions make me scratch my head at how out of touch they are at times.

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Originally Posted by Mad Moham

I haven't seen anyone explain what they would do if they were in charge. I've already pointed out in another thread that there are obvious legal ramifications (with regard to maintaining ownership of any IP) of letting people pirate games. But even if we forget about that for a moment, if someone wanted to let rom sites continue without any consequences, how would anyone justify that to the board members and shareholders at Nintendo? Before someone makes some smartass reply, bear in mind that some of the rom sites operate at a profit, so you would have to sell the shareholders the idea that Nintendo's products should be given away for free to people who are profiting from them.

Decisions like those Nintendo have made recently aren't as simple as one individual just taking action on a whim. Companies are at the mercy of internal politics, shareholders and the law. People probably had a long discussion before they came to the conclusion that legal action was necessary. You may even find some people within the company who have no issue with old games being illegally distributed, they just have their hands tied due to copyright laws and a few key individuals breathing down their neck.

I don't understand why people get so emotional about the whole thing, its not like Nintendo are attacking you personally. But if Nintendo's actions really bother anyone, perhaps the best course of action, before you boycott Nintendo, is for you to join Nintendo's staff and work your way up the corporate ladder so that you can try to change the policies yourself.

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Because I care for games. There is hardly any gaming museums, corps like SEGA have a terrible record of keeping their soruce code and harddrives and too many games can and now will be lost forever, never mind classic Arcade games..

Still, I should expect no less from a Corp that looks to charge off people making YouTube vids playing their games, charge the earth of old roms and so called remasters and now look to kill a rom site that's been brilliant soruce of forgotten games on forgotten systems, never mind a brilliant soruce for SEGA unported amazing Arcade games. Yes I hate and despise Nintendo. This is horrible move, not least as a back up for games to the industry I love and grew up with

Yeah I'm not worried about the ROM's being available somewhere online, in some form, it's just regrettable that Nintendo seems to be launching a culture war (that is impossible to win).

And it's unfortunate that it will be harder to find now, apparently, even if it's only a little bit harder.

Plus I happened to be a fan of EmuParadise. I found it on my own, some years ago, and felt like I discovered something lol. The site was user friendly and pretty comprehensive across many different consoles.

Also my emulation is typically for games that I just never get to buy in real life, because they don't turn up in stores, especially games from other countries, and hacks, etc.

So it's filled that niche of games that I would not be able to buy. Now the more obscure games will just be that much harder for people to play.

But whatever, it will still be out there on other sites / torrents / etc.

Ultimately free sharing of information will win, I think.

This also reminds me of the controversy over copying DVD's. People seem to forget that VHS tapes were used to copy movies and TV shows for years, and it was promoted as a cool technology of the time.

Now copying DVD's is the equivalent but some folks act like it's a crime or immoral. It's practically the same exact thing as using a VCR in the 80s lol.

I think most people will come around to thinking that it's not wrong to have free info sharing on the web. It's what the internet really is, after all, sharing information.

I can't believe that the promoted use of VHS recordings has been replaced by moral & legal controversy over copying DVD's and sharing ROM's. It's all very similar.

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Originally Posted by Ecco

This also reminds me of the controversy over copying DVD's. People seem to forget that VHS tapes were used to copy movies and TV shows for years, and it was promoted as a cool technology of the time.

Now copying DVD's is the equivalent but some folks act like it's a crime or immoral. It's practically the same exact thing as using a VCR in the 80s lol.

I think most people will come around to thinking that it's not wrong to have free info sharing on the web. It's what the internet really is, after all, sharing information.

I can't believe that the promoted use of VHS recordings has been replaced by moral & legal controversy over copying DVD's and sharing ROM's. It's all very similar.

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No offense, but has VHS been a dominant media format at any time in your lifetime? Believe it or not, it’s always been illegal.

Look, it’s very black and white: companies don’t want you to have their computer software, books, music, movies, or video games unless you buy it.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

No offense, but has VHS been a dominant media format at any time in your lifetime? Believe it or not, it’s always been illegal.

Look, it’s very black and white: companies don’t want you to have their computer software, books, music, movies, or video games unless you buy it.

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That would be cool for most gamers. The problem is that big business has contradicted itself many times to justify what you are paying for, actually buying, etc. They argued that games were gouged due to the high cost of carts. Then cheap media arrived and they said that it was only an incidental transmission device and you were buying an "artist license" for the contents.

It's been twisting around so much that they now sue stores for playing the radio and are making gamers pay for the same game tens times over. They're also spending hundreds of millions of dollars to stop you from servicing the devices you pay good money to buy. Just so that they can gouge you with a monopoly on servicing their own defective merchandise.

It's not as simple as black and white, but when you take that kind of sharp perspective, it's still the companies buying politicians to force you to pay to play the rom of the NES game you already paid $50 for 30 years ago.

As bad a modern games are with thousands of dollars of content you have to buy in pieces to complete the experience, companies like Nintendo are making people pay hundreds of dollars to play a single NES game. And then taking down their customers' youtube videos and channels for showing footage of them playing the legally obtained games that they've bought several times over.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

It's not as simple as black and white, but when you take that kind of sharp perspective, it's still the companies buying politicians to force you to pay to play the rom of the NES game you already paid $50 for 30 years ago.

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No, dude... the answer is in your fist-shaking question. Companies still see these games as commercially viable. Of course they want to make money on future digital releases or multi-game compilations or mini consoles. If the market is flooded with free versions of these games, it interferes with their ability to sell them officially. It’s easy to get angry at every company who has the audacity to constantly be looking for profit, but that’s freaking commerce. The sole existence of every business on the planet is to make money. Period.

And no one is making you buy anything. If you want to pay $5 for Mega Man 2 or Super Mario Bros every five or six years, that’s entirely your choice. Anyone who doesn’t want to pay for the game again can just play the game they’ve already purchased. It’s amazingly, mind-numbingly simple. You are not entitled to get a free version of the game on the Switch or PS4 just because you already bought it on the Wii or PS3.

Look, I freely admit that I prefer not to pay for stuff. It’s annoying when I can’t find a free MP3 of, say, Sabotage by Beastie Boys, and end up paying $.99 for it. In most cases, I will always look for the free versions first. But I don’t blame the artists or their labels for shutting down MP3 sites. It just means I have to work a little harder to steal something that the owner wants me to pay for.

Video game roms are no different, and Nintendo is no different from Metallica and all the other artists who shut down Napster.

You can twist the argument all you want and make all kinds counterpoints, but at the end of the day, it is black and white.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

companies like Nintendo are making people pay hundreds of dollars to play a single NES game.

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What the hell are you talking about?

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

. And then taking down their customers' youtube videos and channels for showing footage of them playing the legally obtained games that they've bought several times over.

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Yes, that is douchey of them. They are shutting down free advertising.

But I think in general they just monetize it for themselves, I haven’t actually experienced this myself.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

No offense, but has VHS been a dominant media format at any time in your lifetime? Believe it or not, it’s always been illegal.

Look, it’s very black and white: companies don’t want you to have their computer software, books, music, movies, or video games unless you buy it.

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FTR I agree with most your stances in this topic but something funny. My dad had this habit of renting many movies per week from every store in the valley and recording them. We had so many movies this way. Never sold them just watched them but I always found it funny he got so pissed at me for taking a free gumball from the grocery store that wasn't free yet he kept pirating these VHS films. Not to get too deep into things but he wasn't the best dad in the world to put it mildly lol.

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Originally Posted by MrMatthews

No offense, but has VHS been a dominant media format at any time in your lifetime? Believe it or not, it’s always been illegal.

Look, it’s very black and white: companies don’t want you to have their computer software, books, music, movies, or video games unless you buy it.

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Well that's fine, yes it's black and white that companies don't want their products distributed freely.

And yes of course VHS was dominant throughout the 80's and 90's. The machines were promoted for taping TV shows, as one of the big reasons to own one.

Then sometime in the 2000's people started to argue that recording things is illegal and immoral lol. Even though no one ever thought twice about illegality or immorality when VCR's were the dominant tech, and everyone's mom was recording soap operas and talk shows lol.