What are we allowed to download?

[mailman]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

i expressed myself badly i SEE it illegal, but not immoral.

I meant immoral. Sorry. I fixed that "typo-thing" in my post.

[Unknown_K]

Copyright laws protect people with money and monopolies (Like disneys copyright to Mickey Mouse), not the general public.

Try using the copyright laws when you are poor and see if you are protected.

[Antiriad]

My my, such realistic cynicism... what next? That rich people are above the law as they can afford the best lawyers?

[lopos2000]

Oh my god. What's next? Give it a rest! Most of the Amiga games & software are abandonware anyway. Who gives a Sh**.

[_ThEcRoW]

Definately Amiga community is a world apart from the rest of the older machines communities. Just look at the Atari or Speccy scene... oh my god!

[jasonver2.0]

As I said in my post i dont agree with selling pirated software, Im really talking about stuff that is 'abandoned' in the real sense NOT SOLD or not produced anymore. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable hiring something, copying it and returning it.

[mailman]

I think that Dr Bong in one of the previous posts explained that there is no such term as abandonware. He also gave a perfect example of thing which some claimed to be "abandonware" and suddenly happens to be fully commercial product available to buy. You will never know who will buy the rights and when you will be able to buy "forgotten" things again.

[PaulyQ]

Abandonware is such a generic term. Just because it's not sold or isn't commercially viable doesn't mean there isn't intelectual copyright to consider. Basically it's abandonware when the owners of the copyright decide it's abandonware.

There's a huge retro thing going on at the moment within the games industry with a boatload of games being ported over for mobile phones etc

So at the end of the day(I know... it gets dark) unless the author/copyright holder hasn't explicitly released the product.... it's NOT abandoned.

Just adding to this, I'm just as guilty as a lot of people in here for grabbing stuff off the net, yup, it's immoral and illegal in some cases, but I have also payed a LOT of money in the past for games for a boatload of consoles/computers, so I do supportthe industry(I think that's my get out clause). I do now buy EVERYTHING.

so to the big question.... can I download it..... that is for your moral judgement and/or if the game/app has been released into the public domain.

[mailman]

@PaulyQ

Well said

[jasonver2.0]

So what is the end result then? Is the Amiga emulation scene legal then?

[Marcuz]

i would say no, it's just so small that no investment from the big companies, either for new sells campains or for enforcing copyrights, for the time being, is convenient.
the exception is the software released to public from the legal rights owners. there should be sites around with legal downloads.

[PaulyQ]

Is the Amiga emulation scene legal then?

using an emulator... no problem as long as you OWN the rom image(i.e. you have used a licenced version from Claonto or own an actual machine that your emulating), downloading of games/apps..... as mentioned above, it's all down to the respective copyright owners. Some games and apps have been released into the public domain.

So the Scene is legal if you are!!

[mailman]

Just curiosity...

Once Digital Illusions gave for free all the pinball games they published (Pinball Dreams, Fantasies, Illusions). There was even a website from which you can legally download those games. But according to this, rights to the Digital Illusions products has been purchased by Electronic Arts. How does it reflect on titles which DI made for free download? Are they still available for free download or not? What about sites which were given the permission to distribute those game. Does the permission is still in law or it should be somehow verified/changed?

[Mick_AKA]

Originally Posted by _ThEcRoW

Just look at the Atari or Speccy scene

There's a what now?!