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In the long run, how much damage can Foley do?
Fat_Trucker:
Did anyone ever clarify what the score was with regard to that piece of legislation stating that using copyrighted software was ok so long as the platform it was designed for was no longer commercially available?.....or something to that effect.
Crazy Cooter:
--- Quote from: KevSteele on June 15, 2005, 12:20:48 pm ---That's the whole crux of my dilemma: supporting legal ROMs at this time means supporting David Foley, which is
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Not really, Foley doesn't have any ROM's (yet) and doesn't talk about when (if) he will get some. That's why I hate when people even reference it. Right now it's all hot air. We should be pushing StarRoms and be contacting people to get them a larger selection. To counter Foleys, I'll announce my service... "fROM'sTM" ;). Priced at $0.98 to $9.98... :angel:
Just as legit as his "service".
Haze:
--- Quote from: KevSteele on June 15, 2005, 12:20:48 pm ---
--- Quote from: IntruderAlert on June 15, 2005, 11:30:56 am ---
Sure.. there are principals involved in the whole matter of legalizing a persons ROM collection
and I strongly believe that it is a good thing to do so.
But on the other hand..
there are principals involved here in allowing a devious snake to profit from the whole affair
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That's the whole crux of my dilemma: supporting legal ROMs at this time means supporting David Foley, which is paradoxical and frankly makes me feel a bit slimy all over.
Unfortunately, if we boycott Foley, I can easily see the IP owners looking at the situation and saying "see, I told you no one would buy ROMs..."
I'm not happy with this situation at all.
Kevin
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We'll just have to see. Foley is targetting somewhat of a niche market anyway, and it would appear he has managed to incense a large number of his potential customers within that market. However, if he offers people what they want, at prices they want, then no doubt he can make a success out of it, the question is, will he, and that is something only he can answer. Many of you have already made the foregone conclusion that the answer will be no.
Emulation or not people these days aren't going to value classic games at the same price they sold for when they were released, given the choice between the original PacMan and a more modern shareware / freeware dot eating game I know the majority of my friends and family would take the more modern game. For all its nostalgic value most people will look at pacman and think it pales in comparison to the majority of the free online flash games.
You can't blame emulation for that, you can't even really blame the shareware clones of these games, its just that people perception of what makes a good game is changing rapidly as it has been for the last 10 years. Also back when pacman was released producing a good quality pacman game was something of a challenge, these days anybody with a little experience in Flash can probably create something to rival it, such is the power of tools available today.
Its an interesting situation no doubt, but if the service fails there are a whole number of reasons aside from existing emulation that could account for it. All I can say is time will tell.
Personally I'm interested in seeing what Nintendo do with their 'revolution'
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: KevSteele on June 15, 2005, 12:20:48 pm ---Unfortunately, if we boycott Foley, I can easily see the IP owners looking at the situation and saying "see, I told you no one would buy ROMs..."
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If the IP owners are (or become) convinced that no one will buy the ROMS, that would indicate the ROMS have no commercial value and make them less likely to hassle the MAME team about them, would it not, or am I being simplistic???
Haze:
--- Quote from: Fat_Trucker on June 15, 2005, 12:42:40 pm ---Did anyone ever clarify what the score was with regard to that piece of legislation stating that using copyrighted software was ok so long as the platform it was designed for was no longer commercially available?.....or something to that effect.
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if you're talking about the DMCA exemptions they basically make reverse engineering protection devices on obsolete hardware legal (thus putting something like MAME in the clear) they don't nullify the copyright on such software however.