nesdev.org

Cartridges are also covered by any applicable mapper patent, but those have expired as well.

How about using commercial game cartridge boards to create carts for homebrews (not reproductions)? There are always gold plated "Copyright Nintendo (year)" notices in them.

That's kind of akin to using book pages as patterns for a one of a kind artwork piece. Though I should think there's no longer any need to cannibalize old parts anymore.

I like to call a donor cart a palimpsest.

Anyhow, I don't think there's any legal problem with it, but it makes some of us sad when it happens.

Feel free to destroy any copies of Winter Games you want.

tepples wrote:"Discuss technical or other issues"

In [url=http://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=135327#p135327]this post[/url], DragonDePlatino wrote:would copyright infringement [by including well-known music in a homebrew game] really be a problem when there are already legal complications with creating NES cartridges?

Which legal complications? NES patents have expired by now, the "Nintendo Entertainment System" trademark would be used nominatively to indicate interoperability without endorsement, and the ruling in Lexmark v. Static Control Components sewed up any copyright trouble that I can see.

Even if the actual music were composed instead of ripped from existing code there's the matter of brand confusion. If the music is similar enough then in come the lawyers. AtariAge has seen that with a Particular Rom by developer Sprybug.

The thing is that most (if not all) companies don't really give a **** about homebrews/repros, since it's such a niche market. It would cost them more to make a lawsuit than whatever they lose when people sell repros with copyrighted material. Also, as mentioned on this topic before, most patents/copyrights of the stuff that was copyrighted in the NES era has expired for a long time. The only exception would be Nintendo titles, since they still sell them on the virtual console.

No, any games that weren't explicitly put in the public domain are still copyrighted and will remain copyrighted beyond our lifetimes. Only the patents that may have been applied for at that time (which only cover hardware) have expired. Mixing copyrights and patents is seriously dangerous territory.

Dr. Mario is covered by a patent that expired in 2010. The program is still copyrighted, so you still can't put "Dr. Mario (JU)" on ROM sites. Nor will you be able to use the same virus graphics. But reimplementing any process described in US Patent 5,265,888 is now free, as US courts have struck down the practice of using a copyright to extend the effective term of a patent or using trademark to extend a patent or copyright.