Romsite....why?!

[Wizard]

Distrbuting roms of games that are no longer in production by an offical publisher is legal. Distrbuting roms of newer games that are still in production be it on the original system or a newer one is illegal according to the DMCA.

Edited May 16, 2004 by K`dash

[miskie]

Its brought to my attention that the question of using Torrents for the bigger files came up and the owner isnt willing at this time to do so.

 

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Id say this looks rather suspicious.. Why ??

 

Well, if the site is providing a service and is only looking for donations to cover bandwidth, they should welcome torrents. The way BitTorrent works is to decentralize the distribution of a file, so, after a number of seeders for that torrent latch on, there would be minimal Bandwith drain from the originating torrent if any at all. This bothers me.. It bothers me in that it seem to contradict the reason for donations in the first place, and with any torrent it is very difficult to control how its spread, so Blah would lose control of those big files for download, and lose the incentive to get people to donate.

 

IMO, If Blah is not looking to profit from the sale of Roms, they should show it by getting some torrents up.. it will lessen their dependance on bandwith, and make it more obvious that making money isnt their intention.

 

Again, Im not trying to dictate what they should do, I could care less. but, Im just commenting on what I see.

[miskie]

Distrbuting roms of games that are no longer in production by an offical publisher is legal. Distrbuting roms of newer games that are still in production be it on the original system or a newer one is illegal according to the DMCA.

wrong. Distributing ROMs by means other than the original hardware for unproduced unsupported hardware is legal if the person who downloads it either has permission from the copyright owner, has the original hardware, or after the copyright expired and 50 years has passed nobody steped forward to claim rights to that work and reinstate that copyright.

 

 

about a year ago it was reported incorrectly that roms are okay and can be traded freely, but that was plain wrong and retracted a day or two later, but people being the way they are hang on to only what they want to hear.

[TBMonkey]

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.

[Agozer]

Also, the 24-hour rule that some rom sites still put up in big letters ("you must delete the ROM image from your harddrive within 24 hours...) is complete BS.

[miskie]

okay.. the question of seeding a torrent came up, and its true that tracking a torrent uses bandwith, but honestly very, very little, as compared to distributing an.ISO all by yourself to the world. Id figure Id add that in to stop any confusion.

[Wizard]

Distrbuting roms of games that are no longer in production by an offical publisher is legal. Distrbuting roms of newer games that are still in production be it on the original system or a newer one is illegal according to the DMCA.

wrong. Distributing ROMs by means other than the original hardware for unproduced unsupported hardware is legal if the person who downloads it either has permission from the copyright owner, has the original hardware, or after the copyright expired and 50 years has passed nobody steped forward to claim rights to that work and reinstate that copyright.

 

 

about a year ago it was reported incorrectly that roms are okay and can be traded freely, but that was plain wrong and retracted a day or two later, but people being the way they are hang on to only what they want to hear.

I once i heard most roms were legal, I jumped for joy. I didn't hear about the retrackmeant though :/

[miskie]

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, like I said, its a control issue..

 

And, if he is in it for Profit, then sooner or later he is gonna get nailed to the wall for it.

 

Distributing any forged/reproduced without permission/etc. copyrighted material for profit is illegal. plain and simple.

[TBMonkey]

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.

 

Distributing any forged/reproduced without permission/etc. copyrighted material for profit is illegal. plain and simple.

 

Selling vs Giving away is not a consideration, the DMCA only looks at the infringement, not circumstances behind it.

Edited May 16, 2004 by TBMonkey

[Wizard]

The way I consider the way the DMCA was wirtten is as shotty like chinese characters on wet paper.

[miskie]

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.

 

probably.. the DMCA is a for profit business, and if busting you for that copy of "Carnival" you have on your harddrive isnt going to get them paid, they probably wont.

 

However I do believe that this won't count in Blah's case, considering they have games for systems that are readily available. Along with most emulation sites, it is all still illegal.

 

agreed.

 

Selling vs Giving away is not a consideration, the DMCA only looks at the infringement, not circumstances behind it.

 

Also true. its just the profiteers are higher on their list of targets.

[miskie]

The way I consider the way the DMCA was wirtten is as shotty like chinese characters on wet paper.

agreed. it is poorly written legislation, full of loopholes, both for and against the DMCA watchdogs.

[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.

Nintendo is very controlling on what can and cannot be done with their systems and games. On one hand, it's greed. On the other hand, it's good quality control. N has shown countless times the effort they go into to prevent unauthorized usage of any part of what they produce; suing 3rd parties for producing "unauthorized" games, suing Game Genie for making an add-on, making the hideous mistake of using cartridges over CDs for the N64, using the more obscure and highly encrypted DVD system now, etc...

 

This heavy control over anything might seem stifling, but also remember that most games produced by and for Nintendo seem to be top-notch compared to the half-and-half for any other system. But seeing this control leads me to believe that Nintendo will never use emulation or ROMs, simply because they know they would not have full control.

[Agozer]

Nintendo is very know for it's obsessive (some people call it paranoia) behavior towards protecting their games and hardware from this so-called misuse.

[Junishin]

I just want to say sorry if anyone was afended. I'm a member at both sites and get their opnion on the subject. I didn't want them to come over here and Rant and spam.

********* on that link paul gives his reasons if you care. However once again I'm sorry and hope you don't shun me in the future if i still need help thank you.

 

m(..)m

gomen nasai.