Double Standards ?


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Sigh...

okay, we can go on like this forever, right?

Well, as I already mentioned, Joe's FTP is illegal as are C64 games as are movies encoded by virtualdub.

We just make the difference between OLD AND COMMERCIALLY NOT ANYMORE SOLD stuff and NEW AND STILL COMMERCIALLY BEING SOLD stuff.

It's just what we think is okay - although it is NOT legal.
(only legal rom sites I know is www.pdroms.com and www.back2roots.org).

If anyone has a problem with this, just PM this to me and I will remove ANY illegal links - may these be old games or new ones (or movies).

Helping out is nice - but I'm pretty sure that 99% of the guys who download your encoded full movie don't own it.

Help out by writing a tutorial about encoding so that everyone can encode his own DVDs for GPCinema - but don't spread the movies.

Anyways, let's just end this neverending discussion, okay?

Anyone who wants to say anything more here can do this now - I'll close this thread tomorrow.
 
Timeslip, it is ultimately up to the mods what they feel is allowed on the boards. Some things may be a "gray area" and it is up to them to decide what crosses the line and what doesn't, it is their call because in the end it is their asses that are on the line. If they feel that something on your site was questionable it is up to them whether or not to allow it. Remember this forum could be shut down and I don't think anyone wants that. It doesn't matter if you agree or not, life is a bitch. When you become a mod then you can make those decisions. That is it, period, full stop.
 
oooh ohoho oooohoho

just want to add my word before this silly thread is locked..!
 
Yeah Timeslip, I agree also and I think that links to any illegal games sites should be deleted because even though people may not complain about them a lot they are still illegal. :)
 
BaDToaD posted on May 25 2004 at 05:10 PM said:
timeslip the simple fact is this is not your board. If the Moderators want to have "double standards" as you call them then it's up to them not you so why don't you just shut up for a while. For someone who's been a member of this board for a considerable length of time and probably got a great deal out of it you show an amazing lack of respect.
Maybe you should start your own board to see the time and effort that goes into keeping a busy board running.
I for one am very happy with the general way this board is run and it's got to be just about the best community I've ever been involved in.
Basically just stop bleating about things and enjoy the board otherwise I'll be forced to nickname you Flossy... Baa!
oh.... i thought this was a community board oh well... :(

I agree with timeslip, you cannot differentiate between Atari roms and other warez, it is like saying that abandonware is different from warez (it is still illegal/ grey area)...

Lock this bow please mods as i want the last word :D
 
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well im guessing the big fonts not working!


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Really cant be assed to finish it!
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Hmmmm

Time for me to chime in I feel.

Firstly, I purposely left your PM to me unanswered because I wanted to discuss the matter with the other mods. This would have been on the mods forum that not many of you know exists, but is there for us when we need it. To be honest, I actually found something way more interesting to do, and thought I'd get around to it tonight. However, it seems you've stripped me of that joy by making it more of a public issue. Looking at the debate it's caused, I gotta say that it's probably better that way anyway.

An interesting argument that I saw recently somewhere or another (cant remember where) highlighted the difference between the different types of 'rom' site that we are talking about here. It's something that I thought was a perfectly legitimate point. There is one MAJOR difference between the hosting of roms created from cartridges and roms created from floppy disks. The fact is one of lifespan. A floppy disk is generally designed to last 8 years, tops. Some last longer, but many dont (as I found when raiding my old Amiga disk collection not too long ago). Storage of these is looked upon more as archiving for the future rather than distributing for no-good reasons. The fact is that most of whats available on joe's FTP is no longer available, even second hand, due to the degredation of the oxide on the surface of floppies. Now dont bother pointing out that you can get X game or Y game on ebay, cos thats not my argument here. Even if you can, they arn't going to last much longer (unless you keep them permanently in the fridge - I know - My degree is Archaeological Conservation, part of which is the study of how objects degrade over time).

Cartridges, on the other hand, have a massively extended lifespan - near enough indefinite. You can easily pick up cartriges second had - there are many second-hand gamestores that make a killing on them!

Lets look at the cases in point.

There are c64, Spectrum and ST archives that arnt really getting touched because they actually perform more of a 'service' to the retro community by preserving games for us and future generations. In fact, the oxide on tapes is even more prode to degradation than floppies. Its something that most companies now turn a blind eye to, as they know that it's actually a good thing to have their entire collection of games archived. Also, the way in which the game industry was structured back then in regard to companies, was way different. Lots of smaller companies (about 99% of whom are no longer around) published games and then dissapeared from the face of the earth.

The 'cartridge' based games tend to be different. The licenses for those are often owned by a single, all-unifying company, such as Nintendo or Sega, or Microsoft for the X-box (to quote a more recent issue). This means that the companies in question, apart from still being a going concern, also still own the entire games back-catalogue for that machine. There IS no over-riding force where the older floppy and tape-based games are concerned, and indeed many companies are actively encouraging the spread of their games (such as Gremlin Graphics - see this month's Retro Gamer in the UK for details!).

Another point is this. You look at the majority of illegal rom (cartridge) sites out there. What? You cant? You know why that is? - cos they're swamped in banners, popups and various filth. You think these people do it out of the goodness of their hearts? Not quite. They get a cent or two for every accidental click to the lastest fool to be flogging something - be it [*I AM STUPID SPAMMER*] or naked women. With all the people hunting for roms out there, that equates to a LOT of clicks, which in turn equates to a lot of money.

Look at the archive sites - for example the c64 archive, or somewhere like worldofspectrum.org. See many (indeed ANY) popups or ads? Ok, so the c64 unlimited archive has one banner, but that's not exactly raking in the money. And of course, the case that we are talking about in this particular thread is Joe's FTP. Now how many revenue-producing ads can we see there? I'll tell you how many - zippo, zilch, not a sausage.


See where I'm coming from here? In my humble opinion, the above points demonstrate why the reasoning behind an archive is sound, whereas the reasoning behind a 'ROMZ' site is, to say the least, slightly less 'in the public interest'.

I dont argue at all that it is, in the eyes of the law, any more legal. I do however argue for you to take a look at it all with a little more of a objective eye. We still cant condone the posting of rom sites - sorry, but that's how it is. I cant condone copyright infringement of any kind. I can, however, see the difference between what some people on this board condone, and what these sites are trying to preserve.

Longest post I've ever done? Dunno - but I hope it gets a point across. ;)
 
Looking at timeslip's sig, he may have gone that route already. I was going to suggest on a couple of occasions that he start his own forum for that purpose, But I doubted the threads would be around long enough! Also I figured the Mods might be a bit miffed at him posting a possible copyright infringment in his sig.

Anyway he cant be punished if he has his own space to do it in. :ph34r:
 
Going to echo Axeman here:

Joe's FTP is still up.
An FTP hosting TV episodes or more modern roms will get shut down in days.

This is not a forum made to host ever-changing links to FTPs while we dodge shutdowns and deal with 'Cease and Desist' letters because we link to illegal content that companies still care about.

I don't give a rat's ass whether that FTP is still up because less people use it, or because companies simply aren't inclined to sue the owner to hell over its content. Point is, we have only ever blocked piracy for two reasons: 1. because it hurts companies (most likely in the case of Gamepark software) and 2. because it brings attention to us (I don't care if a letter is 'nothing', hando doesn't deserve to deal with even a tiny amount of legal hassle for providing this free forum for us all).

Joe's FTP doesn't hurt companies as the software is old and all profit-making games have been removed from it, as far as I know, at the companies' requests.

Joe's FTP doesn't bring us any trouble because nobody cares about it.

Therefore, it is kept up. Personally I am nothing to do with it, as I never touch anything Atari or Amiga related. I'm a PC person. But I support the rest of the mods in their decision and can see why these conclusions have been drawn.

I don't jump on bandwagons, timeslip. It's the opinion I have, that just so happens to be overwhelmingly supported on this thread. You are in the minority, and therefore you can't expect mods - who represent the community as a whole - to change the rules for you.
 
Axeman, it's nice to hear your argument about old disk/tape media degrading unlike cartridges, but a while ago I posted this thread asking if I could put an ftp link to gpfrodo-friendly C64 games to which you replied that I was not allowed (click the links)

I do agree that there is a huge difference in acceptability between banner-ridden rom sites and 8/16 bit disk image ftp sites, but I was rather dissappointed at the time and thought it a little unfair...
 
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yeah i read the first and last thread.

ST games are REALLY old.

atari doesn't really care about it. they move on, actually there gone (they're infogrames now) so st roms are abandonware, teehee.
 
Axeman posted on May 25 2004 at 07:12 PM said:
The 'cartridge' based games tend to be different. The licenses for those are often owned by a single, all-unifying company, such as Nintendo or Sega, or Microsoft for the X-box (to quote a more recent issue). This means that the companies in question, apart from still being a going concern, also still own the entire games back-catalogue for that machine. There IS no over-riding force where the older floppy and tape-based games are concerned, and indeed many companies are actively encouraging the spread of their games (such as Gremlin Graphics - see this month's Retro Gamer in the UK for details!).
I think that pretty much hits the nail on it's head. There is simply a bigger chance of getting permission to host games (or less risk of getting sued) where part of the copyright doesn't belong to the firm providing the actual hardware (i.e. Nintendo, Sega, Sony...)
Perhaps because these companies actually have the means to do something about it, but also because they might still have an interest in their old games (in Nintendo's case this is relaunching old games for new systems).

Atari ST games aren't OLDER than... say 8-bit systems. I guess they're just not under the same strict licensing deal as Nintendo, Sega or Sony games. I guess the same goes for C64 and Amiga games...

Not saying that it actual legal to download these games - Perhaps the copyright-holders just don't care about these games today.... well - in a financial sense anyway.
 
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