TBMonkey

Nintendo seems to be the only gaming company determined to shut down any usage of their games. Most of the arcade developers don't care (if they're around), some older sega programmers actually like emulation, and Sony/M$ don't seem to take more than rudimentary steps to stop anything. Don't get me started on the monopoly toilet paper called the DMCA. I understand that some parts are necessary, but in it's current form overbearing abuse can be interpreted. Here's a quote I made a while ago on N.

We can safely say this: If a video game requires hardware that is not readily accessible by both discontinuation on the manufacturer's part and through resellers, then the game is exempt from the DMCA. However I do believe that this won't count in Edgeemu's case, considering they have games for systems that are readily available. Along with most emulation sites, it is all still illegal. Selling vs Giving away is not a consideration, the DMCA only looks at the infringement, not circumstances behind it.

Torrents are hideous to upkeep, unreliable in the longterm, and are actually a security breech for many people. I got busted for using a torrent . Paul never was interested in torrents in the first place. Also, I never said that Blah wasn't in it for profit. They are. They're a buisness. You all must think that he's under some sort of webmaster obigation to put forth a lot of his effort, time, and investment with no hope of compensation.

So, are you trying to say that it is MORE illegal to sell roms for profit rather than give them away at expense price? Remember, having, selling, and distrbuting roms in any was shape or form is illegal.

I'll suggest something to Paul, though I doubt he'd want to make a multiple account style setup (really complex). You probably could try to rely on a few banners and a low donation fee, but the amount of content you could supply would be smaller. I liked Blah because at the time I found them, all the other sites had very few games and a lot of trickery (vote for us, click these three banners, etc...). ---edit--- Yeah, Blah has ben around for a while, but not in it's present form. I remember him switching servers around a few times myself in the past couple of years. Considering the caliber of sites other than Blah itself that he hosts, the hosting isn't that powerful (but I haven't asked him). I Do know that he's hesitant to host any other site that hosts Roms as well, you can speculate on whether to keep competition down or because they're not that strong.

Then you can see how hard it is to keep one up?

I never said you all were bashing. I was just joining in the conversation. But how would Paul pay for that without any donations? Banners? Ha, If I could run a $500 a month site on banners alone, I'd be up there with Google. Remember it's either a lot f money or none. @K'dash, you haven't run an emulation site, have you? People are greedy, take what they can get for free and screw you if you ask me to donate. Blah used to rely on clicks before (way before Isos), and they were begging weekly for clicks and donations to keep afloat. Now he has a policy that all new games and Isos are for paying members, and makes good money. Unfortunately that's just good buisness sense. I know you all can get the stuff for free, heck I did, but there are people willing to pay for the convenience of it being all in one spot with good D/L speed.

Should be, but unfortunately this is the real world where, like you said, 'bandwidth costs money'. BTW, how much money have you donated? If you're like the statistics, there is a 99% chance you haven't. Why? Because while novel in practice, not enough people donate voluntarily to keep a server running. I used to run a Hotline server for free, with just about as many games as Edge had. What did I get? A pile of leechers that didn't even give me the courtesy of a thanks, but dowloaded as much as they felt like.

Aside from the random server problems... edit.... Also, for those "purists" that don't pay for downloading roms: be glad you have that option. Yes there is DC (But you have to share a few GB to get on the good servers), and newsgroups (that will have crappy retention and speed unless you pay *gasp*) and free sites like ******** (That get bogged down because just about everyone goes there). Its just been recently that more and more people have been paying for games, since Edge happens to be rather stable and is constantly getting more games (Thanks mainly to sherl0k and the crew). As said before, the $30 is a one time donation, not monthly as assumed by some people. Along with unlimited access to the roms (especially the large CD variety) that features no pop-ups as well. Thats almost worth it. If Paul went at it by trying to make everything free, his alternative would be to use banners and pop-ups for revenue, and possibly beg for donations. Seeing most of the attitude here... "I ain't paying for games", he wouldn't get a dime from donations. So that leaves only popups and banners. Try to pay for said servers at $499 a month with that! Not even concievable. Think, people! Yeah, Pauls making a nice profit, but his alternative is to go broke trying to give everyone free stuff.