How ethical are repro carts?

[cm30]

No, they can't. That's trademarks. As per this article:

www.plagiarismtoday.com/stopping-internet-plagiarism/your-copyrights-online/3-copyright-myths/

Copyright is not like trademark. Copyright has a set period of time for which it is valid and, unless you take some kind of action, you do not give up those rights.

You can get less money in the form of damages if you don't protect them, but no, you'll never lose a copyright because you didn't defend it.

[Sliver X]

I used to ROM hack. A lot (http://www.romhacking.net/community/242/).

Several of the projects I did/contributed to have ended up on various reproduction carts.

I've heard the argument that a ROM hacker shouldn't get pissed off about this kind of thing since our works are derivative in nature based upon openly pirated sources, but there is a huge difference in my opinion: Everything I did was done for the sake of doing it. I never asked for or received a penny for my work (One of the hacks I was involved with, Dragoon X Omega II, took over three years of development time to complete).

To see someone throw that on a bootleg cartridge and make money off of it goes completely against the spirit they were created in, and I kind of feel sorry for the people who buy those things considering they are getting massively ripped off.

[eatersthemanfool]

I agree. I think repro carts are great as far as keeping old out of print games in circulation (provided the manufacturer doesn't try to pass it off as original) but it's a really shitty thing to take someone else's hobby work and make money off it.