Dos Games

[erebus]

I fail to see the argument here.
ebay sells 2nd hand software
software piracy is "The unauthorized copying of software" Game stop don't copy software.
Ubisoft & EA used DRM in 2008 and have since abondan it.
ZX spectrum software maybe"crappy" but people still pay money for it.

so 85% of the ZX spectrum software on this site is illegal. ?

Just because a games producer doesn't follow up with copyright infringment law doesn't make it legal. Many games are still commerical available a quick ebay search for the likes of ZX Spectrum games will bring back a ball of old cassette tape games and consoles.
I think a small but respectable fee should be paid as royality to any game developers or production houses, much the same as Radio stations pay musicians, I know its impossible to do this, but I'm just calling a spade a spade, or in this case a pirate.

ebay don't count as does any second hand shop. Most of the companies today hate eBay and places like Gamestop, since they see buying and selling of second hand games as piracy.

Heck (if me memory remembers correctly) EA and Ubisoft asThe unauthorized copying of software is run on a different system on what it was run on first, and if ya have to play that areas you have to pay them, there is even a game or 2 from EA (? not 100% sure it's them) that your serial key is only valid for something like 6 months and then it expire, and it's on original sales, not second hand. You pay them only to play a set amount of time then your game that you bought becomes "pirated" and useless, except if you pay for a second & 3rd & 4th serial. But me digress

Also most of the gaming companies that was around during the beginning of the Computer games era isn't around anymore. And of those that is still around only about 5-10% of them really cares about their old IP's. Nintendo used to shutdown or send C&D letters to anyone who hosted NES & SNES roms, but about 2 years ago they ceased doing it and now focus only on their DS and 3DS romz.

Todays Gaming Companies is more "scared" of second hand sales & piracy of their new games than worrying about a old "crappy" game that ran on the ZX Spectrum (of which only 10-15% of the library isn't made freeware by their creators).

[crustyasp46]

[quote="erebus"]I fail to see the argument here.
ebay sells 2nd hand software
software piracy is "The unauthorized copying of software" Game stop don't copy software.
Ubisoft & EA used DRM in 2008 and have since abondan it.
ZX spectrum software maybe"crappy" but people still pay money for it.

so 85% of the ZX spectrum software on this site is illegal. ?


The argument here about anybody selling second hand games is just as much a pirate as you seem to think this site is. The company or person selling the game is pocketing the money for the game therefore depriving the developer the opportunity to sell that copy to the individual as much as a copy given away. Yes, on ebay and any local buy -sell group you can find software for any game platform, and there are buyers who will buy them, and in that sense everyone is contributing to piracy.

In reality, most ancient console games have authors and producing companies who are no longer in existence and are untraceable to ask for permissions to use their fodder.Visiting other sites similar to this, have the same policy as HT, if someone who rightfully owns a property asks that it be removed, it is done.

Piracy, perhaps, but I think preservation is the first consideration, and unlike the carpetbaggers of ebay , and companies who only think of the bottom line , this site only asks for a small individual donation, to be able to offer what it does.

As a collector of technology history, I buy what i can, where I can, and am a pirate of software, I do not feel one bit guilty. It is the norm in these days to see the huge recycle bins full of so called useless electronics, which on occasion has been a treasure trove to me for those things no longer manufactured or cared about. I care and I do not wish to see it destroyed and lost.

In my case it is not about what they may be worth, but what they mean to me personally. Will anyone care down the road, I do not know , and i do not really care. I would hope that one of my grand kids would have the same passion as I do, and keep what I have collected. I can only hope.

Your argument about the ZX Spectrum, is weak at best, as any retro platform software has buyers, and the seller of most of it is usually the private person pocketing what they can get for the item, and it makes them no less a pirate than I if I copy the game and sell it. In my opinion you are splitting a straw which travels down the same road.

[erebus]

"Downloading material from the Internet for noncommercial research or private study purposes may be justifiable under fair dealing. However, republication, for example on a personal web
page, will constitute a copyright infringement. "

doubleUdoubleUdoubleU.cf.ac.uk/insrv/resources/guides/copyright/inf010.pdf

This puts it beyond any doubt, the site needs to have permission from the copyright owner to distribution or publish their software.

[Hot Trout]

You have a choice, you don't have to visit here.

[erebus]

Hopefully by clearing up questions around software copyright laws members here will be better informed and equipped to make choices based on facts and not on someones rose tinted view of them.

Thank-you for giving me the choice to post here and add something to a community that I hope will be able to continue and flurish.

[Kherr]

"Downloading material from the Internet for noncommercial research or private study purposes may be justifiable under fair dealing. However, republication, for example on a personal web
page, will constitute a copyright infringement. "

doubleUdoubleUdoubleU.cf.ac.uk/insrv/resources/guides/copyright/inf010.pdf

This puts it beyond any doubt, the site needs to have permission from the copyright owner to distribution or publish their software.

It's lobbyists in congress and whatever they do over in the UK that have interests in said commercial entities that screw things up for everyone else. Does... let's say... Nintendo. Do they care that we have every single NES game publicly available for download to run in an emulator (not to mention their GB, GBC, GBA, N64, and SNES games too)? Obviously not or they would have said something by now. This site has been around since 1999, so that in itself is a statement that these either currently active or obsolete entities do not care or do not know about us having their content available on the site, and therefor are not being hurt by us at all. If Nintendo knew and believed us to be hurting their revenue then they would have either asked that it be removed from the site or taken legal action against us, which for 13 years they have failed to do, which means they obviously do not care. It's Nintendo's job to keep up with information needed to protect their company and it's investments and interests, and if they've failed to notice us then they're not doing their job. This goes for any of the major companies.

As Crusty put it, some of these entities no longer exist to ask for any permission so going down that route is an impossibility and a waste of time.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[stinow]

Excellent. WHat do you want to do first?

Got the two lists together and tryi g to work out the compare script, but it's tougher than it seems, because a lot of games re just spelled differently. But just investing some time in this so it might be useful in the future and for now for my Javascript skills (yea I quit building it with batch scripting because I couldn't search for a character in a string and let it return it's position; and I needed that.

Will keep you posted when I've got the sites list and mine compared.

Cheers

(sorry for little o.t.).

[erebus]

"Downloading material from the Internet for noncommercial research or private study purposes may be justifiable under fair dealing. However, republication, for example on a personal web
page, will constitute a copyright infringement. "

doubleUdoubleUdoubleU.cf.ac.uk/insrv/resources/guides/copyright/inf010.pdf

This puts it beyond any doubt, the site needs to have permission from the copyright owner to distribution or publish their software.

It's lobbyists in congress and whatever they do over in the UK that have interests in said commercial entities that screw things up for everyone else. Does... let's say... Nintendo. Do they care that we have every single NES game publicly available for download to run in an emulator (not to mention their GB, GBC, GBA, N64, and SNES games too)? Obviously not or they would have said something by now. This site has been around since 1999, so that in itself is a statement that these either currently active or obsolete entities do not care or do not know about us having their content available on the site, and therefor are not being hurt by us at all. If Nintendo knew and believed us to be hurting their revenue then they would have either asked that it be removed from the site or taken legal action against us, which for 13 years they have failed to do, which means they obviously do not care. It's Nintendo's job to keep up with information needed to protect their company and it's investments and interests, and if they've failed to notice us then they're not doing their job. This goes for any of the major companies.

As Crusty put it, some of these entities no longer exist to ask for any permission so going down that route is an impossibility and a waste of time.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Nintendo cares..
"Haven't the Copyrights for Old Games Expired?

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come. "

doubleUdoubleUdoubleU.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp

(Please dont post links to Nintendo from here)

[Kherr]

I really don't care what that page says, and I don't care what the laws are. If Nintendo either had or still honestly cared, we would have had some sort of legal action held against us. Nintendo themselves would have to file a legal claim for the law to have any effect on us, so again, Nintendo obviously does not care about us having their games, because I can tell you right now - they know about us.

On their website of course they're going to say they're strictly against emulators and roms but that's a front. They've done nothing against us or anyone else on the web for having roms and emulators for nintendo branded products. Us having and promoting the playing of Nintendo games from times lost is not, and will NEVER affect their revenue. They say it does, but that doesn't mean that it IS. Remember that what a company says is almost never the truth until they can't lie about it any longer. Look at Micro$oft. They said that they would NEVER put an HDMI port on any consoles except the "Elite" system. 2 months later all "Arcade" and "Pro" system versions (the white ones) had HDMI ports on them. They also said that they'd never produce another Xbox system beyond the Elite system because of the colossal failure and the 2 billion dollar hit they took because of the Red Ring of Death. Low and behold they've since made a new Xbox 360s console (the slim version being sold now) and they've announced that they are in production of a new Xbox console to compete with the PS4 and the Wii-U. So never believe what corporations say about their products because until they actually produce their product you can never be sure about what they're doing or what they believe.

Until a lawsuit happens to a ROM/Emulation website due to a legal claim, downloading and playing ROMs on Emulators for systems past that are NO LONGER BEING SOLD OR PRODUCED is only a crime on paper because what happens in the real world is completely different. If you buy a game USED from a store such as GameStop, GamePlay, GameHeadz and other third hand reselling stores is, according to the law for piracy, ILLEGAL. You're not buying the object from the maker itself, you're paying someone else for whichever companies games/consoles you're buying, which is the same thing as piracy. Un-authorized re-sale/re-production of a licensed authour's created work that you have no legal claim to.

[spearss91]

Dos games trend is too old and now very less person play these DOS games....


Now children involves in console games....