Yeah that wasn't my post. :aimsmile:
Yeah that wasn't my post. :aimsmile:
If you cared about copyright laws, I think you should just avoid copying things altogether. If you're allowed to do whatever you want with something you own, why is there 'unauthorized reproduction' laws? Does it only apply when you are going to profit from it? I don't think so.
or ya could just move to Japan!
six years ago when I was in Highschool studying law, it came to my attention by way of professional lawyers and one Superior Court Judge that Japan maintains no copywright laws. This point was brought up by some big stink or other made about keeping japanese folk out of tech shows and the like because they'd copy the design, take it home, and sell it there, effectively closing off the market of the millions and millions of people in Japan.
the situation may have changed, though.
Makoto, Honesty.
Of course you're right Dr Unne. However, even though something may be legally wrong, in someones perception it may still be ethically right. I think that perhaps this topic was made to discuss if Emulation is 'ethically right'. Seeing that this site encourages emulation, it's a fair point.
The concept of 'abandonware' is complicated. Should people download games which are no longer profitable? Well, theres a fine line between profitable and non-profitable. Square continue to make profit from their 'back-catalogue' Final Fantasy games-they have re-released them on PSX and from what I've heard may do the same on PSP.
This is an extremely difficult moral subject, and one that is very real and very current in the world today. Piracy is killing the music industry, and, as high power modems come into use may do the same for games. It is highly possible that in the future that T1 and T2 modems may well also allow for piracy of profitable games (ie-ones that would be on current release).
This means that as well as the legal issue, another point you may want to think about is that you may be incouraging a culture that may, one day, kill the digital industry. Piracy will grow, and may one day create a situation where electronic data programs become unprofitable. If games become unprofitable, then who will program them in the first place?
Hmm. Can you define abandonware for me? I thought abandonware is the stuff that a company officially releases to the public after it ages to the point that they're not fussed anymore. FFII, for example, is NOT abandonware, even though it's no longer in production.
Is that right, or is abandonware merely something that's no longer being produced?
If that's right: Abandonware is perfectly free and there is no ethical issue.
If that's wrong: There is an ethical issue, although I'm personally not too fussed. I prefer to purchase my software though, or better yet, find something that's free. I don't like having to crack things.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
<i>If games become unprofitable, then who will program them in the first place?</i> --Harmless Pigeon
People who like writing games, probably. Look at Linux. Just a bunch of dorks who like to program, so they do. Who wrote this website? Who runs this message board?
So far as other software, in a computer ethics class I had to take, we discussed the possibility that writing software might be handled like medical and scientific research is handled today. That is, a lot of it is done by universities, or paid for by government grants. Computer science is a weird mix of science and industry, so it's hard to figure out where it should go; is it science? Is it industry? It produces "products", but computer programming is also a realm of mathematics. When you own a program, you really just own an algorithm, or a huge string of 1's and 0's. Computer programs and data can be easily copied because it's just "information", and information can be "copied", i.e. learned, by as many people as have access. But computer data is also something tangible and material, in the sense that computers produce music or games or video. It really is a mess, but computer science is literally still in its infancy. It'll all get worked out somehow, for better or worse.
BoB: I don't know. I think abandonware is what you call things that were never officially entered into the public domain, but that the company just stopped producing and they don't really care about it any longer.
This isn't anything official as it would have been submitted by an everyday internet user, but it seems accurate:
Seems it is illegal. I guess what I was describing in my previous post was just another form of Freeware.Taken from UrbanDictionary.com
n. . software that is no longer sold or supported by the original publisher / developer, often found as free downloads on the internet because it cannot be obtained elsewhere. Not legal, but often seen as morally acceptable because the company that made it is no longer selling the title, nor releasing it as freeware, therefore abandonware is "keeping the game alive", so to speak.
eg. Doom II is not abandonware because id still sells it, while The Incredible Machine is not sold, therefore is abandonware.
EDIT: Going by the above, I think that it should be legal for people to download abandonware, as otherwise it could be seen as impossible to purchase. It's an interesting ethical debate.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
But these abandonware products are no longer being made by the companies. I recently downloaded Fatal Fury 3 for PC, that game hasn't been in circulation for about 8 years, the company (SNK) declaired bankrupcy about 3 years ago so if the product were sold on a market SNK would not make any money. Doom II is no longer being produced, there for it is abandonware.
Speaking of this, woot my Halo for pc i downloaded illigeally finished about a hour ago! *gives cookies to teh interweb*
Good job ripping off a company of $50. You sure showed them why they shouldn't charge you money for a game they produced. After all, Microsoft is evil, so that gives you all the right in the world to steal from them.
That's just wrong, man. If I knew who you were, I'd report you to the police for stealing.
ARGUMENT FROM GUITAR MASTERY
(1) Eric Clapton is God.
(2) Therefore, God exists.
That's like saying if a book is out of print it's ok to get it from a library, take it to Kinko's and copy and bind a whole new book for yourself. If something isn't sold anymore, you have to go find one used. You can probably find something cheap on eBay.
Downloading un-ethical? Why because the companies producing the music/games are losing a little money. Heres my view on the downloading of music at least. Lets say I want the song "still frame" by Trapt, and thats the only song I want. Whos the bigger thief? Me for downloading this one song, or the record company for forcing me to pay $19.99 for this one song plus 14 or 15 other songs I didnt want in the first place?
I'm back bitches!!!
I don't really care whether it's ethical or not. I do a lot of things that are unethical... Uh... Yeah.
Well why not? If it's out of print for good and that's certain, then it's your own time, money and other resources you're putting into making that new copy for yourself, and as long as you're not selling it on for profit or whatever, then as far as ethics go (perhaps not copyright, but that's seperate), I don't think there's a problem. Or perhaps we shouldn't even copy information out of books at the library even by pen and paper, which is a lot more common method of reproducing such information, and also occurs with books not out of printOriginally posted by eestlinc
That's like saying if a book is out of print it's ok to get it from a library, take it to Kinko's and copy and bind a whole new book for yourself.
Only millions of people are doing it. That doesnt mean its right, but still. Single me out why don't you. You can say you have never downloaded anything illegal? your windows is liget? you have no downloaded music? you have no downloaded videos? your computer is 100% free of copyrighted things, even such as small things like immages. You know i could report you for your avatar, because the screenshots you took them were property of Squaresoft.Originally posted by DocFrance
Good job ripping off a company of $50. You sure showed them why they shouldn't charge you money for a game they produced. After all, Microsoft is evil, so that gives you all the right in the world to steal from them.
That's just wrong, man. If I knew who you were, I'd report you to the police for stealing.
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