Should Old/Classic Amiga Games/Software Be Free?

[CU_AMiGA]

Hey Yo!

I was thinking that maybe Amiga games and software should be made to be downloaded legally. I am referring to the old/classic Amiga stuff that are no longer profitable. I think the Amiga scene's problem (apart from English Amiga Board), is that they still think we live in the 80's/early 90's. I think by doing the above, the Amiga scene may get a rebirth (in terms of retro department). Look what they have done in the ZX Spectrum scene. They are making stuff free, as well as the C64 scene. It is arguable, that because of this, it's the reason why the Speccy and C64 scenes are still thriving today. :-)

Regards,

[Effy]

I thought 99% of the Amiga games are already free to download ?! Please correct me if I´m wrong  :lol:

[SidVicious]

There's no problem to get and download Amiga games legally.
Check http://www.back2roots.org

edited by admin : Do [color=ff0000]NOT[/color] post links to warez sizes. Doing so is against our terms of service and is a good way to get your account terminated.

[CU_AMiGA]

Hey Yo!

Oh yes, i forgot B2TR! My bad! :-) I think the others are illegal though, B2TR being the only legal site about. But (although it's a good site and i respect their work), it doesn't have too many games.

Regards,

[Vincent]

The first 2 links are fine, the last is not.

--edit--

In 1999 I met Jan Brockmann who could convince Electronic Arts to allow us to have their Amiga soft on ASO. Soon other companies joined and ASO became a growing and legal Amiga games archive.

That's from amiga.emucamp.com/index2.htmso that's definitely fine.

[CU_AMiGA]

Hey Yo!

Better delete the last link Phsyco Sid! :-) I want this to be a discussion thread, not a locked thread! :-)

Regards,

Thank you for starting a thread to discussing the redundantly obvious.  Might as well have said "I was thinking each and every one of you should send me a check for one million dollars".

Seriously, it is up to the publisher of these old games in most cases to make them available.  Even if the publisher doesn't exist any more, that doesn't give people any legal right to make these games downloadable.

What I would like to see, and it would take a LOT of work, is a site which gets LEGAL permission to make the software available for a small cost, say $5.00, then splits that income with the original authors.  The original author gets a little for his work, the site owner gets a little bit for all his work and support.  Works out best for everyone.

Here's the thing I don't understand.  As you can all see, we've put up Google adverts.  Mostly we did this to slow down the display rate of legitimate advertisers to help their adverts last longer, because we're not really making any money from the google ads. Checking now, we've made exactly 4.69 USD in the last 12 days)

Anyway, I see several ads for people selling "Amiga CD's" with "games and ROM's" on them.  Here's the thing guys.  I can't control these advertisers since I (sadly) am not the CEO of Google.  I cannot guarantee the legality of these cd's, nor do I know the origin of these games.  In my mind however, displaying these advertisements is OK, because..  Amiga Inc is the holder of the trademarks.  It is ENTIRELY up to Amiga Inc to defend the trademarks and get those sites shut down by putting up complaints with Google *and* the owners of those sites as well.  If Amiga Inc doesn't feel that it's worth taking action, then there is nothing that we can -- or should -- do at all.

That's different however than putting links to pirated warez directly on Amiga.org.  We could be held liable for promoting software piracy because of direct links to pirate sites.

For the record however, we do NOT support software piracy (and "abandonware" *is* piracy in 99% of the cases) in any way, shape, or form.

Wayne

[CU_AMiGA]

@Wayne

Why do you always have to repsond with such a negative tone. As i have already pointed out, i am making a discussion, not an arguement. Now come on, be a professional here Wayne, and not a jerk who always works against me instead of working with me.

Regards

[Magic-Merl]

Mmm.

Where was the negativity?

Thought it was constructive and a damn fine business opportunity for anyone who wants to develop a site for downloading abandonware.

Wayne, you have your head screwed on, and yes this is a discussion and you, I think, are now included in it.

[CU_AMiGA]

Magic-Merl wrote:
Mmm.

Where was the negativity?

Thought it was constructive and a damn fine business opportunity for anyone who wants to develop a site for downloading abandonware.

Wayne, you have your head screwed on, and yes this is a discussion and you, I think, are now included in it.

I wasn't sayign that it would be me setting up a site for downloading illegal games. I am not that good enough. I was merely discussing the Amiga scene and hopw it still seems to be time warped in the hey days of Amiga.

Regards,

I'm not being negative at all.  I'm pointing out facts about piracy and abandonware.  

Saying "I think all the old Amiga games should be made downloadable" is both irrelevant and redundant.  Amiga games are still subject to copyright and trademarks and are therefore not legally downloadable.  The exception is sites like BTTR who've gotten legal permission to host games for download.

Wayne

[Magic-Merl]

Agreed.

But this is a discussion, this is a forum.  We are all entitled to our opinion and yours is only as good as the next.

Your thoughts are valid, as are Waynes.  As our mine.

[Vincent]

I'd just like to point out that one of the links Sid posted was for AMI Sector One which is legit.  I think it was mistakenly edited out with the other one that was definitely not legit.

AMI Sector One was a stand alone site with the proper permission from the publishers to host the games, and is now part of the BTTR site.  Although it's not been updated since 2001, it still exists as a legit way to get games if BTTR is down.

[Dwyloc]

There is nothing wrong with saying that you think all old Amiga software should be freely downloadable as long as you are happy to say within the law.

I would say that sites like back to roots have the same view and that’s why they as the owners of Amiga titles for permission to distribute them from their web site.

There has also been a trend for companies to make older versions of their games available for free download from their web site to help advertise their latest releases.
Rockstar games release free release of an undated version of GTA1 from their web site is a good example of this.  A number of Amiga games have been given away for free in the same way from their owner’s websites.

Well, personal annoyance with CU aside, that's exactly what I was trying to say.  The important word here is "legal".

Wayne