Double Standards ?


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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.



Well, reading this and between the lines of earlier posts, it seems to be fine to post links to websites which have a long range community intention(the completely clean hobbiest Atari/Amiga sites), instead of the pop-up based illegal warez sites. It seems to me and has bein earlier posts that when the site itself has not gotten into problems, why would we? To name one, The Old Computer(Mods remove if I'm wrong), is a great site. Old stuff mainly, but NES too, and made by a really devoted guy as his passion. It has been up for a good couple of years, and seems not to have had any problems at all. If they don't, how could this in any way damage this forum?

Note that it is not my intention to post illegal links here, if the example link isn't 'clean', please delete it as soon as possible.
 
To name one, The Old Computer(Mods remove if I'm wrong), is a great site. Old stuff mainly, but NES too, and made by a really devoted guy as his passion. It has been up for a good couple of years, and seems not to have had any problems at all. If they don't, how could this in any way damage this forum?

Hmm - this is getting a bit tricky - While I've been poking around for the last few months not many people have given links to sites with games - the rule has been that you just don't!

I've just been to that old computer site and it contains nintendo material which I know is due to be launched on the GBA fairly soon (A lot of old nes titles are - some are already on e-reader cards)

I agree this is a cleanish site but if we all start posting links to sites like this then it is still possible for the mods to get that cease and desist order.

Maybe if there was one place on the forum which people could recommend web sites (so all these links could be vetted by the mods easily) - I am sure the mods have their own idea about what is and isn't acceptable, the issue is how we can make it easier for them to police what sites we post.
 
Moogle posted on May 25 2004 at 11:09 PM said:
Well, reading this and between the lines of earlier posts, it seems to be fine to post links to websites which have a long range community intention(the completely clean hobbiest Atari/Amiga sites), instead of the pop-up based illegal warez sites. It seems to me and has bein earlier posts that when the site itself has not gotten into problems, why would we? To name one, The Old Computer(Mods remove if I'm wrong), is a great site. Old stuff mainly, but NES too, and made by a really devoted guy as his passion. It has been up for a good couple of years, and seems not to have had any problems at all. If they don't, how could this in any way damage this forum?
You are correct that blatant rom links are a lot more troublesome than subtle community links - these communities have been allowed to exist because companies haven't threatened them with legal action. However, 'The Old Computer' does not advertise the NES on its front page. Read Axeman's critique about how cartridge-based games are centralised in ownership. That site would have been fine if it wasn't for the NES roms.

Of course, this is now such a touchy subject that I don't wish to do a single thing without other mods knowing. So I will not delete it immediately. Perhaps another mod who thinks the same way will, now.
 
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frolik posted on May 25 2004 at 09:55 PM said:
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...
Thats exactly my point. I still havent and wouldn't place links to the sites, I was simply trying to add a degree of graduation to the matter, instead of portraying it as totally black and white.

Placing direct links to copyrighted stuff is still dodgy legally, so we try to avoid it.
 
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while lots of rom sites are just trying to get money i know man that giv highly illegal roms but wiht no banners (i'm not posting for obvious reasons), so that line of arguement does not have such a great use.

(i agree with some of what you have said though)
 
You are correct that blatant rom links are a lot more troublesome than subtle community links - these communities have been allowed to exist because companies haven't threatened them with legal action. However, 'The Old Computer' does not advertise the NES on its front page. Read Axeman's critique about how cartridge-based games are centralised in ownership. That site would have been fine if it wasn't for the NES roms.

Well, it doesn't advertize NES on the front page, but it has been up for a good many years and I'd say if someone would've wanted to get their games off there they could've shut that down long ago.

But no matter in which context, ROM's are, at least for the biggest part, illigal, and I think you should draw one clear line. Though you can't get in trouble with Joe's, it still is what timeslip said, breaking the law only when you're sure you won't get caught. I'd say either OR you say no links at all and stick to that, OR tolerate links. Of course the last one is no option, but what is happening now is that the site is somewhere between them, resulting in a grey area, which in my opinion only results in endless discussions about the border lines. I'd say make it a yes or a no, not a 'maybe, depends on the site' blabla.
 
I will reiterate that I was no part of the Joe's FTP business. Personally, I would say to ban all rom links, if you wish to draw a clear line.
 
It really isn't up to the members to say where the lines need to be drawn it's up to the mods.

Nobody wants the place shut down - if the mods are happy to evaluate every link that is posted, and discuss with each other whether they think the link is acceptable then that is up to them. They have been around a while and know what they are doing.

I think Rico has already shown us that it is very difficult to police a policy that allows some links and not others but if they are happy to do that then why do we need to whine about it? - They are doing us a favour!
 
Well - I think enough has been said about this here.
I guess it's up to us mods to discuss this in our forums... let's see what comes out.
 
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