Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Gaming => Topic started by: BIG-IRON on May 27, 2004, 10:48:39 PM
-
Ok Im not sure if this conversation is allowed so if it isnt im sorry, I dont know if some people consider abandon ware as piracy or if anyone even cares. Im looking for old amiga games to DL and put on disk or HD. Anyone have suggestions? Specifically Im looking for Battle of britain and the bards tale stuff. But any help is appreciated.
-
Do not post links or requests for warez.
Warez in our definition is illegal software up to and including "abandonware". The exception is if the person is KNOWN to have the legal right to distribute said software. This is not debatable.
Posting Guidelines / Cardinal Rules (http://www.amiga.org/modules/sections/index.php?op=viewarticle&artid=6)
-
"Abandonware" can be interpreted in two ways.
Either the original publisher has declared the works public domain and everything's dandy, or the data is spread by people who've decided for themselves that the software was abandoned and that it should be free to pass on.
Going by the book, the latter violates Amiga.org's terms and conditions of use.
-
Go to the well known back2roots.org site, it's legal.
-
BIG-IRON wrote:
Ok Im not sure if this conversation is allowed so if it isnt im sorry, I dont know if some people consider abandon ware as piracy or if anyone even cares. Im looking for old amiga games to DL and put on disk or HD. Anyone have suggestions? Specifically Im looking for Battle of britain and the bards tale stuff. But any help is appreciated.
You can try back2roots.org, which is a entirely legal site for amiga abandonware :-) Back2roots released quite a few amiga games with permission from the companies which released the games.
-
Also try to locate the websites of the companies that have inherited the trademarks. Sometimes they also provide their old games for marketing reasons. For example, Cinemaware provides many of their old games as downloads from their website.
-
I do not know which knob moderator secretly removed my comments but that was damn censorship (nothing breaking the rules in message) - it is a shame that Amiga.org promotes piracy of other platforms openly, but sends out the censorship patrol when someone asks why a.org promotes it.
-
Hi Piru,
it is really difficult (at least for me) to understand what is abandonware and what is illegal.
Take a look at this 3DPool game (http://www.amigaland.de/spiele/files/microprose/3DPool.zip) downloaded from www.amigaland.de and see that it is a cracked version.
So . . .
Ciao
-
@Framiga
I was merely quoting the Posting Guidelines of amiga.org.
My personal views about legality: Anything that is not released for distribution by the copyright owner is, by definition, illegal (not talking about moral here).
Cracked versions: There are several cases where the original game had a copy protection and originals were lost years ago. In such cases (several of them) the copyright owner has made cracked (and copyable!) version available for download.
This is particularily funny since in a way the cracks now are official part of the game. :-)
Also, in a way the publisher abuses the copyright of the cracker who coded the crack routines and cracktro. But since the cracker abused the copyright in the first place, I doubt any cracker really minds... :-)
-
Hi Piru,
OK . . it wasn't a critic about your post :-)
It was only for understand how abandonware works.
I haven't a great experience about gaming but now that i've downloaded some games from the net, i've seen that "often" the cracked versions are only to remove the protection.
Cheers
-
I do not know which knob moderator secretly removed my comments but that was damn censorship (nothing breaking the rules in message)
How many times do you have to post idiotic posts 1) telling users it's 'okay' to pirate software, 2) instruct them how to do it and where to look, 3) post links to warez sites and then scramble to remove them before the mods remove them themselves?
You violate the posting guidelines time and again and then pout the instant someone enforces the guidelines that are clearly requested for the privlege of using amiga.org's forums.
Amiga.org is a privately owned site and Wayne along with the moderators in charge, are allowed to remove any messages they see fit that violate the rules they've laid down.
Perhaps you missed reading this rule:
No posting about illegal activities
If you get drunk, that's fine. If you use drugs, that's fine. The moderators of this site aren't here to be your mother. We will not however tolerate excessive posting promoting drug use or other illegal activities. It's not funny, it's annoying, and it's unacceptable. Moderators are free to use their discretion up to and including banning the account of the person responsible.
I think advocating piracy falls into 'promoting illegal activities'.
-
-
Do a search for Amiga back to the roots. ITs a collection of software that is all legal to download since the authors have given the okay. Some of that is on there.
-
@Zadoc
Stop changing the subject. a power hungry mod removes my comments,(which did not even break any of the site rules). that is without a doubt blatent censorship at its finest, there is no excuse for it.
What i find wierd though is how Amiga.org piracy promoting threads like THIS (http://www.amiga.org/forums/viewtopic.php?topic_id=17605&forum=9#forumpost234203) thread "AmigaOS4 on Kazaa" can stay open and promote piracy using the "Amiga.org" name while i make a comment about the hypocrisy used on here and get censored like mad.
-
Uhm....how about putting a small comment in place when a posting is removed.......:-?
(Or even half a thread at that).
-
@ Paul_Gadd,
Personally, I agree with Zadoc.
However, with the holiday weekend coming up and people usually being very busy because of it, maybe that thread simply slipped through the cracks. Regardless of how it remained in existence, there were some questionable posts in there. Since I don't have the time to hand-moderate every one of the posts, I whacked the entire thread. Like it or lump it!!
The moderators and administrators of this site are not gods. We simply cannot see every single thread or message that gets posted. Sometimes we need help. Guess what ... that help is up to and comes from the site users!! If you don't like it or the way things are done here on the site, you are free to leave! However, why don't you stick around and kindly point out something to us that is questionable against the posting guidelines and rules of this site rather than {bleep}ing and whining about it. End of discussion.
EDIT: I am not locking this thread (YET!) with the hopes that civilized discussion can/will continue. If it gets out of hand, the thread will be locked.
-
Hoya!
@Paul_Gadd
Bad example mate! This thread is more a joke than something else...
Be funky
M A D
PS: BTTR's addy is www.back2roots.org
-
Paul,
With regards to this issue, and to be perfectly frank, we don't give a damn how you feel about "censorship" or "piracy". We have openly and privately asked you time and time again to refrain from promoting software piracy on this site.
This is not open for discussion, and if you want to continue arguing this unwinnable fight, you'll find yourself needing to do it on another Web site. We cannot put it any more simply than that. This is NOT censorship, this is simply a reinforcing statement regarding publicly posted policies. If you do not like our posted policies, we'd hate for you to have to suffer through being here.
Discussion of software piracy is a very clear cut and dry violation of Amiga.org's POSTED LEGAL POLICIES and violators will be banned. End of flippin story. Get it?
The original poster here asked a question. Innocently I might add. Innocent questions are not the same as openly promoting piracy which you have done time and time again.
The AmigaOS4 on Kazaa thread (which should have been killed, but slipped through the cracks) was nothing. Even the poster admitted that what was on Kazaa was NOT OS4, but a copy of the Harry Potter movie. Subsequent searches by other Amiga people have determined that OS4 is not on Kazaa and would be useless to everyone except A1 owners, (who legally get a copy anyway) even if it was.
While we usually enjoy your contributions to the conversation in these forums, you have been given too many warnings over the past year or so to allow this to continue one more time. As such, my advice is to just sit back, stop arguing a point you cannot win, and let it go before we are forced to take an action that we do not want to.