Why are Dreamcast bootlegs illegal?
There are at least five different reasons why Dreamcast bootlegs are illegal, as follows: 1) the production of an unauthorized derivative work based on program code protected by copyright (the GD-ROM to CD-ROM conversion itself is the violation), 2) the unauthorized copying of licensed program code for illegitimate purposes without permission from the copyright holder, 3) the unauthorized distribution of licensed program code without recompense to the copyright holder, 4) unlawful usage of the backup clause of copyright law (backups have to be exact copies unless authorized by the copyright holder, and that includes format changes), 5) unlawful abuse of the fair use clause of copyright law (fair use, i.e. “personal use,” is no justification for software piracy). There are, of course, other laws Sega could bring to bear on the issue, but traditional copyright protection (according to most authorities) is currently Sega’s strongest legal defense.
