I have been playing Sly Cooper on a PlayStation emulator, I never owned a console in my youth and now I have a pretty solid PC. Getting my setup working took a bit but now I'm all ready jump back into a totally different era of game design (an era I think did more right than wrong). However in getting my emulator and USB controller setup I ran into a bunch of articles and things about how the companies are against emulators.
I don't understand it. They aren't making new copies of old games or hardware so it's not like they are losing money. They aren't making these old titles available on modern gear either. To me, emulators are like digital libraries and it's open-source. I mean to say if I checkout a book from the library (especially an older out of print one) the book publisher isn't making any money because they already made their money. Maybe a better analogy would be used goods stores in general, but again emulators are open-source and are more concerned about the sharing of this information for free. Real-ass hacker ethos.
Could someone explain why companies think emulators are bad? I don't even understand the "this is piracy" angle, as they aren't steal anything that's available. There a few companies like CAPCOM (as a random example) who release their classic catalog on digital storefronts so maybe I get that, but for the most part old games can't be played through "proper" channels so why the hell do MEGACORPS care about emulators? Is it an IP thing?
These corporations pay massive fees to their legal departments so it is all a form of grifting realy, if the lawyers and firms working for these corporations don't actually do anything how are you justifying spending millions on legal fees per year?
There is no requirement to send DMCAs or protect your copyright either this is a myth.
The second reason is these Japanese companies are run by even more backwards corporate executives than the west, they don't want to understand how the internet works, how word of mouth works, how much they are gaining from passive marketing through streaming and emulation etc.
These idiots are living in 1992 and behave like it. They'll fight for what they believe is right based on the ideology that lead these ghouls to become corporate executives not based on any technical research or evaluation of the pros and cons.
They believe that fandom just appears out of thin air and not for example from deep roots in various communities that carries over between generations(GenX/Millenials/Zoomers). They are idiots and it is not worth analyzing their motivations.