In Collecting

Provide copies of manuals with actual cartridges I sell on ebay?

Some of the games I sell are complete in boxes with instructions and some are bare carts. I was thinking it would be nice if the buyer of the bare carts got a copy of the manual (maybe a photocopy or a computer file of a color scan) so they have some idea how to play the game. The famicom police shouldn't come busting in here to get me right?

I don't think its too bad. I saw someone selling Dragon Warrior maps that were printed out from the computer.

PS: Why is this in "Collecting"?

lol the "Famicom Police" yeah, they'll bust in all your windows and put orange zapper guns to your head and tell you to not move or they'll shoot you... with light... lol and dont be to scared when they are all dressed like mario. and dont get mad if one of them jumps up on your head. lol, they cant help it. its in their blood.

The sad reality is that it is completely against copyright law. As a library worker this is something I'm fairly knowledgable about. Technically you can't copy any more than 10% of the whole booklet without written permission. That's not to say that anyone will obey these laws. Hell, I'd copy a whole booklet as I'm sure most people would. It's certainly no more illegal than playing a NES ROM for instance.

Yeah, Blockbuster Video (I believe it was them) either did or almost did get the crap sued out of them by Nintendo. I guess the Big 'N' didn't appreciate their booklets being copied and put out for rent. Blockbuster was doing it because manuals always came up missing, Nintendo didn't see it this way. Then again, if you don't guard your copyrights, I believe it pretty much negates them in the first place... or something like that

That's interesting. I didn't know that Nintendo actually did that. Nearly every video store that I'm aware of copy their game booklets for the exact reason mentioned in your post. They were almost certainly making an example out of Blockbuster and I doubt very strongly that sort of thing would happen very often. I guess they're just trying to put the fear of god in us. I doubt they'd sue anonymous Joe Blow for copying a Bionic Commando booklet.

Although strictly speaking it is copyright infringement, I doubt it will be a problem for NES or famicom games. Just make sure you make it 100% clear in the auctions that the manual is a copy. You don't want angry buyers who thought they were getting the original.

I think that's ok.

Back then, I asked Nintendo if they could send me a booklet for Megaman 3 because I lost mine and they sent me a b/w copy of it.

Nintendo still provide copies of some NES manuals but you have to pay for them:

NINTENDO OF AMERICA VS. BLOCKBUSTER ENTERTAINMENT
Source: The Forbidden Nintendo Information Repository

Blockbuster Entertainment, a large video rentail chain, gets sued by Nintendo for photocopying game manuals for NES titles (year?). Blockbuster used these copies when they rented out a NES game. Nintendo won the case and forced Blockbuster to stop using these photocopied manuals.

Thats from NESWorld...

Ah... it feels good that my memory actually served me correctly

don't feel bad... we all have our moments..

this is the one that always gets me....

NEW YORK STATE VS. NINTENDO OF AMERICA.
Source: The Forbidden Nintendo Information Repository

In 1991 New York States Attorney General sued Nintendo, claiming they have an illegal Monopoly on the video game market. Nintendo agrees to give each customer a $5.00 certificate good on any licensed NES game.


Taken from NESWorld

as long as you dont "sell" anyone the copied booklets that should be fine. a free informative aid