Hell no. Don't you see that Nintendo released Zelda and Zelda 2 in that double pack? What about all those compliation packs that just came out from Midway, Activision and Atari. They are still making money off their 20 year old games.Originally posted by Dr Unne
In my opinion, NES ROMs are or should be public domain by now.
When I said "should be", my primary concern isn't necessarily the well-being of Squaresoft. Mickey Mouse becomes public domain in a few years, if I remember correctly. Disney will lose millions of dollars. Eventually, things pass from the realm of money-making to the realm of being part of our culture. In any case, no one is making money off of selling Nintendo carts. If Nintendo carts were worth anything, they would still be sold as Nintendo carts. One could argue that NES ROMs take the place of other newer games people could or would be playing if they had no NES carts to take up their time and energy. That might be a valid point, I don't know. In any case from a legal standpoint you are right, NES ROMs are not yet public domain so far as I'm aware.
However, if I concede your point, my original point stands. If you believe that NES ROMs should be protected, you must agree that new games should be protected even moreso.
I do think new games should be protected even more so. I do believe that Mickey Mouse isn't public domain for about another 20 years or so. They got the gov. to extend the length of the copyright.
ROMs I believe are a toss up between right and wrong. I can still go out to the book store and buy a book that is 20 years old and find it and if I can't I can go the the library. I can go out and buy old as hell music and old movies. I can't go out and buy old NES carts.
Its a difficult situation for old games. But new games and software is pretty much unacceptable.
Since when was this 'public domain' concept still in practice? I was almost positive that they changed something about copyrighting laws so that material stays copyrighted forever (or can be renewed?).
I never read anything about it being good forever. I thought the just extended the copyrights another 20 years.
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