Piracy on Older Consoles

[dataDave]

Show me an independent studio shutting and I'll show you EA's marketing budget. Independents that fail do so because of their market strategy, software priorities and failure to adapt.

...And because they produce terrible products. I personally don't miss any of the independents that have gone under. Try harder next time. That's the way of the world.

I don't see Nintendo or Valve facing had times, or Tom Cruise going bankrupt (Yeah, Tom Cruise is terrible, but a lot of people like his stuff and cough up).

Look at Riot Games (makers of LoL). They released a free to play game which was quality, they get millions of people playing (currently LoL is the most played PC game) and then charge money for vanity items and aesthetics. I can't give them enough money, even if there was nothing in return.

[Harry]

You my son, are an arse head. I'm sure 90% of this forum will agree with me on that.

I don't see them agreeing with you on that, I just see you calling me an "arsehead" , but I like how you perfectly quoted that part of my post.

I will revert to my previous statement; I don't see anything wrong in pirating games that are no longer sold as new. So for Gamecube games, or Dreamcast games all bets are off to me. There's no morall highground that exists anymore when it comes to getting these games for free. You either buy an original for a high price second-hand from a private seller, or download it for free. There's no difference except the money in YOUR pocket.

It should not be labeled as taboo anymore. Just like ROMs for even OLDER consoles aren't.

[EvilBoris]

I don't see Nintendo or Valve facing had times, or Tom Cruise going bankrupt (Yeah, Tom Cruise is terrible, but a lot of people like his stuff and cough up).

Valve having good times is nothing to do with them making games, but more to do with them taking 30% of pretty much every PC game that is sold through steam. Which is a lot of PC games.

[ItsThere]

The Wii isn't even an old console yet though is it. I wouldn't condier it Retro, you can still buy it "over the counter" in all good video game stockists...

Anyway, here I go with this, intellectual property rights don't expire because a product is no longer available. Each part of copyright, design right or trade mark has a certain period of protection built into it in England and Wales and, without going into any detail whatsoever I can 100% guarantee you that EVERY SINGLE GAMECUBE game will still be protected by copyright (50-70 years for varying rights within it from the last year it was released - e.g. in the case of classics series) and probably by a validly PAID FOR AND REGISTERED trademark.

Just because someone sees it as morally ok doesn't mean that it is ok. In fact, it's just wrong.

Let's go with another example. I get asked to do free work all the time in my job. I tend not to do it. Why? It devalues my paid work and it isn't how modern society works. Harry - what do you do for a living? Fancy doing it for free?




EDIT - I haven't even bothered to mention licensing rights (either exclusive or non exclusive) because I couldn't say what they are, they are all private documents in the UK. But that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Look at Fur Fighters on iOS. Did anyone think that was going to come back? I didn't. I didn't pirate the old version, I bought the new one to support the devs...

[Shozuki]

The Wii isn't even an old console yet though is it. I wouldn't condier it Retro, you can still buy it "over the counter" in all good video game stockists...

Anyway, here I go with this, intellectual property rights don't expire because a product is no longer available. Each part of copyright, design right or trade mark has a certain period of protection built into it in England and Wales and, without going into any detail whatsoever I can 100% guarantee you that EVERY SINGLE GAMECUBE game will still be protected by copyright (50-70 years for varying rights within it from the last year it was released - e.g. in the case of classics series) and probably by a validly PAID FOR AND REGISTERED trademark.

Just because someone sees it as morally ok doesn't mean that it is ok. In fact, it's just wrong.

Let's go with another example. I get asked to do free work all the time in my job. I tend not to do it. Why? It devalues my paid work and it isn't how modern society works. Harry - what do you do for a living? Fancy doing it for free?




EDIT - I haven't even bothered to mention licensing rights (either exclusive or non exclusive) because I couldn't say what they are, they are all private documents in the UK. But that doesn't mean they don't exist.

Look at Fur Fighters on iOS. Did anyone think that was going to come back? I didn't. I didn't pirate the old version, I bought the new one to support the devs...

Nicely worded mate, well said!!

You my son, are an arse head. I'm sure 90% of this forum will agree with me on that.

Yup, have to agree it's a bit moronic to make a thread on this topic, especially where most forum members are passionate about gaming old and new.

[charlesr]

The only agrument I can see FOR piracy on older consoles is for achival purposes.

Here's an idea. No idea if it's a good idea:
Maybe if there was a definitive archive of digital media, then it could be tagged with "available on iOS/VC/XBLA/PSN" etc. by the rights holders, with links to purchase. These links might gain a tiny bit of revenue from the sale and thus fund the archive. Anything not tagged could then be downloaded for emulation with too much guilt. Or the rights holders could get all huffy and tag it with "archived but not for download - please petition for its release on platform X".

[koopatroopa90]

Let's go with another example. I get asked to do free work all the time in my job. I tend not to do it. Why? It devalues my paid work and it isn't how modern society works. Harry - what do you do for a living? Fancy doing it for free?

Thing is by someone downloading a game no longer available new then the rights holders or whatever aren't any worse off, assuming they haven't re-released the title. If you or Harry do some work for free, it'll put you out. I can't really think of a good analogy but it's like giving someone a copy of a piece of work you did years ago that you happen to still have sitting around (lets say you are a writer and it's an article on something?) but got paid for at the time and you weren't planning on doing anything with since. The real effect to you of someone else having this article in its original form (lets say a magazine), or as a photocopy of the bit of paper you have in a filing cabinet is negligible.