[Idea] LegalRoms Market

[commander-beef]

That idea just floating in my mind since i started working on dosbox ex - game downloader. 

What's this:

A Public Domain Roms market similar to google play + dosbox ex - game downloader. For example:

You could download many "roms" for Atari 8Bit [freeware/pd] or roms for SNES [freeware/pd] straight to your fav. emulator [that you use..]. Initially i could support Atari/C64/SNES/GEN/Gameboy/ST/Amiga roms since theres a lot PD roms out there for these systems

The UI

Should be similar to DosBox EX - Game Downloader

check screen:

Legal:

All roms would be on CC/PD/Freeware licence or commercial if some authors of original content would be interested in putting it in LegalRoms Market [ eg. Tempest Xtreem for Atari 8Bit ]

But where's the catch?

Ah, yes .. there is. Community involvement. As usual, this project isnt small, because I need to maintain database with roms on server, so community involvement is a must for this project to succeed. 

If there will be involvement in gathering roms and maintaing them in nice database manner i can start working on completely free LegalRoms Market for OpenPandora..

Your opinions?

 

[Wrath Of Khan]

Very good idea. See here http://www.back2roots.org/Games/back2 roots amiga site. Games are licensed for distribution only by back2roots, I think. This may be problematic.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, when adding a game, the readme needs to be checked.

Many Shareware games and demo versions allow redistributions, many don't.

That usually is written in the readme of a game, when you download it - so it needs to be checked before uploading the games.

Apart from that, it's a good idea

 

[PokeParadox]

It is a good idea, but as mentioned it's a case of making sure licenses are respected, etc.

 

[atari_afternoon]

It is a very good idea.

 

[Fzero]

Yeah, I'd appreciate something like this

 

[Wally]

Except Stunts isn't freeware.

 

[_jr_]

Well, the project could also have some budget (from sales or donations) to contact right holders and make contracts for free/paid distribution.

 

[ElPoco]

I had something similar in mind for flashenv, so that users could easily find and get good free flash games

 

[commander-beef]

this of course could be done , even easier without breaching any licenses, because SWF/FLV file can be downloaded straight from WWW page that provides game by LegalRoms Market..

 

[WizardStan]

SWF/FLV file can be downloaded straight from WWW page that provides game by LegalRoms Market

This is a very complex subject, actually. Standard "I am not a lawyer" rules apply.Within the terms of use of any website for user created content there is always a clause stating something like "you give the website the right to use your content". There's always someone who chooses to interpret this as "they want to use my pictures to advertise and sell stuff and that's not fair" and while that may be true the clause is still legally required: without express written consent, even if it is implicit in the nature of the website, the content creator still owns the copyright which gives them the right to allow or deny people the use of their work. Without that clause, a person could upload their work and then sue the website for copyright infringement when someone else views that work. Or such is the understanding I've got. Tumblr recently updated their TOS and it included this explanation as to why the clause was needed.

Anywho, taking that to another layer, the content creator explicitly gives permission to the website for their use, but that doesn't necessarily transfer those rights to a third party service. There may be additional clauses in the terms of service for users that say they will only use a web browser. You could probably argue that whatever download code you come up with is ultimately just a very specialized web browser but I dunno if the judge would accept that.

Basically I'm saying copyright is weird and hard and don't just assume things are ok. It should probably cost about $50-$100 to ask a real lawyer for advice; a bit more than most people want to spend on something they're just doing on the side but might be worth it just to avoid stupid pitfalls, especially if you ever want to try and make any money off it (by ads or donations).

 

[commander-beef]

"deep-linking" never was a subject of copyright infringement, as far as im concern and if LegalRoms Market will stays as freeware/non-profit app im sure this would be hard for lawyer to keep the case "stealing content for profit.." For example, torrent magnets are quasi-links for torrent data, but no lawyer will try to jump with opening case on torrent site that provides only magnets. .

Btw, im not lawyer as well..

Indeed , digital copyright isnt piece of cake [and thats why lawyers love it ]

 

[ingoreis]

www.pdroms.de

With a little deeper search will you find some realy realy good Games

 

[klapse]

www.pdroms.de


With a little deeper search will you find some realy realy good Games

Thanks for the link. Seems to make the Legalroms Market idea redundant... no?

 

[EvilDragon]

No, as such a market software that allows automatic installation is a lot nicer than browsing, downloading and sorting manually.

Additionally, there are only free ROMs, no PD PC Games, Shareware or Demo versions of games.

 

[commander-beef]

No, as such a market software that allows automatic installation is a lot nicer than browsing, downloading and sorting manually.


Additionally, there are only free ROMs, no PD PC Games, Shareware or Demo versions of games.

and no computers.. only consoles/handhelds.. 

for example atari 8bit / commodore scene is completely overlooked on pdroms.de. Kojote is making awesome work with pdroms.de, but some areas of emulation / retro gaming are overlooked there.. 

 

[levi]

Wouldn't it be a tad ironic if a market dedicated to free/pd roms used a closed source front end to the emulators? Just me, maybe.

 

[comradekingu]

I dont understand how not providing the source of the frontend and stating the lisence of the games isnt better for everyone involved?

People who share some rights might stop when things are distributed illegaly. Users parttake in something they arent aware of. The list of common senses to use goes on

 

[commander-beef]

Wouldn't it be a tad ironic if a market dedicated to free/pd roms used a closed source front end to the emulators? Just me, maybe.

Its not ironic. PD/Free roms doesnt mean that they re GPL'ed. Think about it. 

Comradekingu:

 
I dont understand how not providing the source of the frontend and stating the lisence of the games isnt better for everyone involved?

 

Oh, again. Same old story. Stuff stays closed. I would like to decide how my stuff is distributed. End of story.

 

 

[levi]

That's fair enough, I respect your rights to do what you want with your own code. I just personally will be more reticent to use it especially if there are alternatives.


Edit: Note I didn't mention GPL. I don't much care about specific licenses myself. Just whether the source is forkable or not.