No discussion of homebrew is complete without addressing its shadow. The San Andreas PSP port exists in a legal grey area. While the engine code is homebrewed and original, the game assets—maps, models, audio, mission scripts—are copyrighted Rockstar Intellectual Property. Distributing a pre-packaged ISO of the game is unequivocally piracy. However, the homebrew community typically distributes only the executable patch, requiring users to provide their own legitimate copy of the PC version of San Andreas to extract the assets. This “bring your own game” model, while not bulletproof in court, adheres to a moral code: it rewards ownership and avoids direct commercial harm to a legacy product. It champions preservation over theft, even as it skirts the edges of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Because a native port is impossible, the "PSP homebrew" scene created several workarounds to bring the San Andreas experience to the handheld: GTA: San Andreas Unity (PS Vita)