The no-man's land of software development. Video game console and handheld manufacturers don't like 'em but, legally, there's only so much they can do against them.
Well, be it the result of manufacturer complaints or other issues, Google has taken a heavy hand against one of the Android emulation scene's brightest stars. The company has suspended the Android developer account for Yongzh, otherwise known as Yong Zhang. He's the creator of the popular "-oid" series of android emulation apps, including Nesoid, Snesoid, N64oid, and Gameboid, to name a few.
According to Zhang, his developer account has been officially removed from Google's Android Market and all his apps have been deleted. This was allegedly Zhang's primary moneymaker. Though he's since moved his emulation apps over to the third-party market SlideME, he's listed them all as free downloads. Zhang says that the apps will stay free for a bit of time as prior purchasers migrate over to the new app store—presumably so that they can receive the latest updates for the emulators as Zhang releases them.
So what got Zhang the boot? Or, rather, who? Neither Zhang nor Google have commented on the primary source of the complaints against the developer's emulator apps. While most speculate that one of the Big Three are behind the purge–Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft–there's also speculation that Zhang allegedly violated the open source licenses for projects that parts of his programs were derived from.
Depending on the terms of the licensing, Zhang could have likely still charged money for his applications. He would have probably had to release the source code for anything he created, however–violating this principle would open Zhang's apps up for takedown requests.
If one of the manufactures went after Zhang, it's likely more an issue of trademark than of the legality of an emulator itself. Sony has previously lost lawsuits against emulator developers when the company attempted to argue that the software was itself illegal (based on various claims).
Following the company's two big losses after it went after PlayStation emulators Bleem! And Connectix Virtual Game Station, Sony has found more success in pursuing claims of trademark infringement against emulator developers instead of outright illegality. For example, the company was successfully able to pull the PlayStation emulator "PSX4Droid" off the Android Market, likely the result of the use of the company's trademarked "PSX" acronym within the app's title.
And don't forget: While emulators might be legal to download (in some cases), the corresponding ROM files—copies of a game's core data–are themselves illegal to download! Hey, we didn't say it wasn't confusing... as Zhang himself is likely learning right now.
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