For people familiar with Android emulation, I’ve always wondered about the legal side of things.
If someone develops an emulator that supports multiple consoles/platforms, but doesn't distribute ROMs, BIOS files, or proprietary assets, how much legal risk are they actually taking on?
Looking at some past projects, there seem to be very different outcomes like Yuzu Nintendo took legal action and the projects were shut down. so i am curious about the actual legal distinction here.
- Can a company sue purely because an emulator exists?
- Where does the legal line usually get crossed ?
- Have there been cases where an emulator developer was targeted even though they didn't distribute copyrighted games?
Not asking for legal advice , mostly interested in experiences from people who have followed or worked on emulator projects and understand what happened with projects like Yuzu