New pirate eBay goods: demo DVD

[CdreCommodore]

I found this today while searching around eBay.  The guy that's selling the Admin Edit: No need to give him free advertizing with Amiga disk images and roms has branched out and is now selling a DVD of Amiga demos.  This is a video DVD, not a data DVD-ROM.

While Googling for information about his DVD, I found this:  Here's the thread on another message board where he talks about making and selling it (scroll down to message #13).

I wish the Mindcandy guys would hurry up and finish their (legit) Amiga demo DVD project.  Are there any other fan compilations out there besides the Amiga Museum DVDs that can be downloaded?   :-?  There is a link at that other message board to two C64 demo DVDs you can download via BitTorrent.   :-)

[motorollin]

There are loads of these on eBay. I keep reporting them when I see them, but I don't know how much eBay really care :roll:

--
moto

[DaBest]

I have to agree. It's a shame that people are doing this. No wonder why Amiga and Comodore went under as well. I remember that in Toronto you could rent games and programmes and it, of course, it had no copy protection.

It just never ends. :madashell:  :madashell:  :madashell:

[Tahoe]

Maybe I'm missing something here but, what exactly makes this illegal/pirated? The first auction (PD collection) seems to have PD only games, and he mentions there are NO rom images included for the emulators.

The Demo DVD, well, Demo's are PD, and have always been PD. He obviously took a lot of time making this, looking at the DVD menu there was quite a bit of work making these.

[bilko9070]

I cant see what the problem is making a video dvd of scene demos at all!  There was another one made a while ago by someone else which i downloaded and was a nice little production.

I mean comeon, all the demos are freely (and legally) downloadable from just about where ever you want.  Also, this guy obviously spent time working on this, and good for him if  he wants to sell it to people looking for a quick nostalgic fix!

Id probably do a similar thing myself if i could be bothered..

[CdreCommodore]

The problem, in my not so humble opinion, is taking the work of others and selling it for a profit.  I sincerely doubt that demo creators created content so that other people could take and make money from it.

The Mindcandy guys get permission from the original groups to use their content.  Also, they don't just slap the demos on a DVD--they spend quite a bit of time and money collecting authenticate hardware to run the demos on.  They've put quite a bit of effort into doing high-quality PAL-to-NTSC conversion, and they add other features like bonus documentaries and commentaries.  The video quality on the Mindcandy Vol 1: PC Demos is amazing, and the disc is double-sided so you get four hours of content.  When you watch it, you know where your money went.

I have no problem with downloading fan compilations like those demo video DVDs and even DVDs full of old Amiga software, or paying someone for blanks and postage, but it's people trying to make money from it that ruins projects like TOSEC, CAPS (or SPS, or whatever it's called now), etc.

I ripped and shared my collection of Aminet CDs some time back (this was after they stopped making the CDs, please no flames :-) ), and one of the guys I shared them with started selling them on a web site.  I really felt like an idiot for wasting my time sharing almost 150 gigabytes.

And finally:

:horse:

For gods sake, does it really matter. If the original coders dont like it then they can sue. Lets get a life in here and concentrate on things to come rather than the past.

Personally I am now gonna order one. It seems like a lot of work went into creating the compilation and I am just grateful that someone has gone to that effort for profit or otherwise.

p.s. I will also get it because it will really piss off some of the pedantic peeps in here.

[Lando]

Tahoe wrote:
Maybe I'm missing something here but, what exactly makes this illegal/pirated? The first auction (PD collection) seems to have PD only games, and he mentions there are NO rom images included for the emulators.

The Demo DVD, well, Demo's are PD, and have always been PD. He obviously took a lot of time making this, looking at the DVD menu there was quite a bit of work making these.

I agree completely.  Although I can count the number of my own scene releases on the fingers of one hand I honestly wouldn't care if they appeared on a DVD (not that anyone would want to... ;-)).

Anyway, it beats all the '17-bit' / 'Scene Archive' / 'Scene Storm' / 'Demomania' / 'Demo Collection' / 'Demos are Forever' et al CD compilations that nobody seemed to have a problem with.

[adz]

DaBest wrote:
I have to agree. It's a shame that people are doing this. No wonder why Amiga and Comodore went under as well. I remember that in Toronto you could rent games and programmes and it, of course, it had no copy protection.

It just never ends. :madashell:  :madashell:  :madashell:

Ummm, poor management killed Amiga/Commodore :horse:

I agree bad management killed the Amiga. WindowXP and other flavours has to be the most pirated OS in history by miles, and yet they still seem to turn a buck or two.

[amigakit]

I suspect Microsoft earn most of the Windows revenue through Corporate Licencing, Education and small business not home users.

I doubt Windows is that much of a cash cow - they have taken over 5 years to migrate to the next version and they have had to invest heavily during this time to remedy XP security flaws.  An OS takes large revenue to develop these days which is a real testiment to Hyperion.

[j_tramiel]

Hmmm, I read this thread after I was informed of it and COULDN'T BELIEVE what the first 3 people who posted were spouting about!!!

Amiga Demos were released into the Public Domain, I am not even offering the code for sale, I am offering a nostalgic bit of video.  So please explain how this is piracy?

As for my other Amiga related DVD, well its full of PUBLIC DOMAIN software.  No kickstart roms, no commercial games, just PD from my personal stash, that I decided to convert into ADF's and create a compilation, heck there are even some of my own PD creations on there.  So just what is your problem here?

The only reason I have them listed at such a cost is to cover listing fees, paypal fees, media costs, postage costs, printing costs and of course my own hard work that went into these.

It was supposed to be a kind of service for people who had Amigas in the old days, but didn't have the means of reliving their youth, by which I mean an Amiga / Emulator and the demo files.  You must remember, not everyone who loved the Amiga and the Demo Scene is still 1337, many people wouldn't have the first idea about running an emulator or even creating a DVD.

And another thing, the whole essence of the Demo Scene was to show off what you could make an Amiga do and things like this can only help to spread the word about the talents of the demo coders.

There, thats my rant over.

I really cannot see what your problem is here, and whats more I seem to be getting blamed for single-handedly bringing down the Commodore empire!!

Its people like you 3 that actually damage the scene, because everyone is sh*t-scared of being called a theif / pirate / etc..

PS  I didn't even know about this Mindcandy thing until I read it here.  I made a similar thing on VHS back in the mid 90's and thought it would be cool to do a more up to date one using the technology of the day.  Who says though, that my DVD and the Mindcandy DVD's cannot exist in the same market?  Aren't we living in a democracy where freedom of choice is the order of the day.

Whups, I'm ranting again.  Sorry for the length of this post, but I just had to get it off my chest.

Thanks for reading, I will shut up now.

[kd7ota]

Good point.

If it is downloadable by anyone, then use it as you want. As long as your not taking credit that you made it all yourself, then it should be fine. I was actually impressed by some of the demos on there.  :-D

[j_tramiel]

Well actually I am the creator of the DVD, I didn't just download it I spent a weekend making it, and was so pleased with the outcome, I decided to sell it.

All of the demos have their credits intact, so I am not claiming credit for them as my own either.