Don't shoot me for this....

[lizard808uk]

I know this is a so called "grey area". But if you were to contact the games publishers direct and then enquire as to how much the intellectual property rights were for certain games libraries or games no longer published. Would this be a bad thing. I know we all do it, but I wouldnt mind paying proper money for it - a good site, download and quality of roms. I guess the more popular games wouldnt be available, but some of the more obscure games would be more feasible.

Some kind of legit Napster for Roms (!?!). There is definitely a market for it, since the GP32, but also because of new magazines like the "Retro Gamer"

If they ask for insane amounts of money, I'll guess I'll have to have a word with the bank....

This is just a topic for conversation, I'm not asking for or need for that matter any roms!!

 

[washo]

I dont think its possible to pay for roms 'coz its forbidden by the laws <_<
You can have roms only if you have the original cartige or if you keep them for less than 24hours
So paying for less than 24h would be expensive :lol:
btw : roms arent legally supported by publishers..... :unsure: .

But that could be good... .
( h34r: why should we pay for roms when they are freely available around the net => OK I know its illegal but its free h34r: )

 

[scottm]

there is a site out there that does just that. I think it's called starroms or soemthing, it's got all the old atari roms for around £2

 

[lizard808uk]

sega.co.jp does it as well. Although it is without an emulator (so I believe). I think they released Sonic in its various forms as well as Ecco the Dolphin.

Its just in the past I used to be plagued with bad dumps and wouldnt mind paying money for a good one (I've since changed my brand of curry ).

Thanks for the site link I'll check that one out...

 

[Bohica]

( h34r: why should we pay for roms when they are freely available around the net => OK I know its illegal but its free h34r: )

Erm, because companies that have spent a load of cash developing a game that you're playing have a right to recoup their investment?

The games are only free because they're illegal - I really hope you're having a laugh here.

And the 24-hour thing - doesn't exist. Warez sites etc sometimes state this - the fact is if you're not the legitimate owner of the product, then you have no right to play/own it.

Oh - and I'm all in favour of legitimate ROM sales where permission is given. I don't think you'd even need a Napster-like system - just imagine iTunes for games...

 

[lizard808uk]

I would defintely sign up to "iRoms" if there was ever such a thing. Also you're quite right about that 24hr thing. The only legal context in which its based on is when you "try before you buy" or in legal terms "invitation to treat" which is about as flimsy as my GP32 power cord. But as has already been proven in the Linus Torvalds case with DVD ripping, as long as you own the product your safe (and can do what you want with it).

Also for the cost of these games online, I wouldnt want to spend masses on it. The max would be about £5 for SNES / Megadrive games (or current prices for games on JoyGP).

 

[washo]

Erm, because companies that have spent a load of cash developing a game that you're playing have a right to recoup their investment?

The games are only free because they're illegal - I really hope you're having a laugh here.

dont worry I was....

I know how much it cost to dev a game..
In fact Im quite OK to pay for roms if it 100% legal

see you



edited : sorry for the 24h thing : I thought that was "legal"....

 

[lizard808uk]

Before everyone starts saying you can get it free on xxxx.com , my point about the £5 thing would be for:

a. good quality download, no bad dumps
b. a cleanly presented site with no popup banners asking me for penis enlargments
c. instructions and good quality faqs for newbies and more experienced users
d. forums that are friendly and inviting like this.

The business model is there with iTunes, all it takes is Steve Jobs to take a look at it.

 

[WhizzBang]

I don't know about other countries, but here in the UK ROMs are not actually illegal, despite what games companies would like you to believe.

They are actually 'unlawful', rather than 'illegal' and the difference is that it is the responsibility of the police to prosecute people for 'illegal' acts, and the injured parties responsibility to prosecute for 'unlawful' acts.

We do things that are unlawful all the time such as trespass, copy music, photocopy pages from books. I think books also often have text descring how it is unlawful to sell a book on second hand.

 

[Bohica]

I think books also often have text descring how it is unlawful to sell a book on second hand.

I can't be certain, but I think this applies to the resale of any copyrighted work. I don't know if it's ever been enforced as resale is a standard practice.

 

[lizard808uk]

I found this on a site through Yahoo:

The "fair dealing" provision of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the copying of a limited amount from a book, periodical or similar publication
for research and private study. There is no specified amount for electronic copies however, and so as a rule of thumb you should consider whether you would feel the amount you are copying would be acceptable if this was your own work.

So with regards to roms, I guess I would be researching them for private study, and I feel that it is perfectly acceptable for people to copy my own work, since I've needed help in the past at Uni. Confused. Yes. But happy now that what I am doing is "legal"

 

[EvilDragon]

Actually, companies CAN make roms free or sell them to you.
I remember seeing a MAME project somewhere where someone made a deal with the companies that you can buy very old arcade game roms for a few bucks.

I KNOW that http://www.back2roots.org/ asks companies to freely give away their old games - and they do!
ALL once commercially Amiga games from their side are FREE FOR PLAYING!

You COULD do something like that for systems like NES, SMS, etc.
But you always have to ask the company who created the specific game, so you'd have a lot of work to do (and big companies like Nintendo won't give out the rights as they still intend to make profit with their old NES games - e.g. Animal Crossing for GameCube features some old classics).

It would be fantastic to see if someone manages to get the rights from various company - either for free or for money (you could finance this via banners, donations or even a little fee for each one who wants to download) to put up a website with old legal roms...

 

[lizard808uk]

The problem highlighted here is the amount of work in order to make them legit. Which brings us back to what someone else said why go to the hassle when you can get them for free. Its infuriating like a clash of idealogies: capitalism vs free enterprise.

For one thing, it would be easier in the UK, due to less stringent copyright laws (although this is set to change), but for a great many games that are of Japanese origin it would be a lot harder unless you can converse like a native.

Still on the positive side, there are the likes of Rare, Codemasters, Team 17, that are worth a look at. I might send them an email and see what happens. The worse that can happen is they tell me to get lost in legal speak.

 

[nauska]

Before everyone starts saying you can get it free on xxxx.com...

I tried this link, but there were no rom's there, so I thought you might have spelled it wrong, so I tried xxx.com instead, but there were not rom's there either...

 

[WhizzBang]

Before everyone starts saying you can get it free on xxxx.com...

I tried this link, but there were no rom's there, so I thought you might have spelled it wrong, so I tried xxx.com instead, but there were not rom's there either...

Very droll.

 

[Anox]

Hmmm, my english is not so good and i dont know if i got everything right but let me have a stab at it:

What is if i would want to buy a game, but you cant buy it anywhere anymore because it stopped producing years and years ago. now i want this game, but i cant have it.
Ok, so if i now download it, i dont really harm the company that made it, because they wouldn't have gotten any money off of me anyways, because they dont sell it anymore.
Now whats wrong with that?

hope that wasn't too incorrect...

PS: Romz are baaad h34r:

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, it's still illegal to download this - even if you WANT to buy it and can't find it.
But no one complains if you do this - not even the company.

If you just download a bunch of roms you can't buy anymore (but would if you could) no one will put you into jail or judge you to pay 1.000.000,00 bucks...
Not even Nintendo.

What the companies concern more are the MASS DOWNLOADING of the games - especially newer ones which are still being sold.

I remember there were times when every site containing NES or SNES roms was shut down after one or two days... this only happens with GBA or PS2 rom sites today.
Most sites which feature only old ROMS stay online.

It's still illegal, but in my opinion you can compare someone who owns about 50 original games and has 3 or 4 illegal roms 'cause he can't find them anywhere to buy with someone who owns 1 or 2 games and has about 3000 roms of games still widely available...