problem with 1001 floppies

[guest1255]

I was just wondering one day:

I got over 800 floppies amiga stuff, each time i bought an Amiga related system, got also 20-50 floppies. Almost 90% are pirated or copies. I dont use/need them.!!!
Im sure that im not the only one at this position.

Now the question:

What is the correct way to act:

A) Do i have to start to format all these floppies if i dont have the originals.

B) Do i have to smash all my floppies?

C) Do i put them in to safe and throw the keys in to a very deep river. ( so that i own 1001 floppies but nobody can use them )

D) Do i take a floppy each time when needed and format it and use it as blank floppy and dont care of the rest?

[KThunder]

probably a or d would be fine. some people might say a only but formatting that many floppies would be pretty rough on your drives. you could probably toss some like if any have damage at all.

[Vincent]

To stay within copyright law (here in the UK at least, dunno about Finland) a would be the way to go.  But to save your drives it'd realistically be d.

But they're your floppies  do what you want with them.  I can't see Amiga game companies taking you to court over old software.

[Cass]

Actually there is no problem... The real problem for the companies are the MP3 and the AVI files over the iNET.

The floppies will be an extinct medium, as the companies will stop producing them (if they haven't already done so). The "D" is more convenient for you and your drives ;-)

[Cass]

Double post!

[adz]

I'd say D, however, I'd like to add another option;

E) There are far more important things in life to worry about

[FluffyMcDeath]

E) You have to make backups before they completely degrade.

Most of that stuff is stuff that no-one is selling anymore so copyright is moot as the holder is not still copying.

Where the copyright holder is still in existance and the product is available for sale then there might be an issue. Anything you like enough to buy that you CAN buy, maybe you should get a copy. Anything that you don't use, leave it be, unused. You aren't stealing something from anybody if you are currently not using something that you wouldn't pay for to not use. (Think I got the wrong number of negatives in there).

If the police decide to berak in to your house and take away your floppies, they will stick them in a PC (if they have one with a floppy drive) and find nothing readable anyway. If they are desperate, they may take several years with a farm of macs to decode your floppies (a la the lost Warhol animation).

If you just do nothing with the floppies the data will eventually go away (in some small number of years). Heck, it might already be gone.

[smerf]

Hi,

Just go out and purchase the original software from your
favorite software distributor.

Then you can claim that those illegal disks that you now have
are your backup copies which are now legal to have and use.

smerf

[guest1255]

Well, i have done like you all told
So far i did buy(ebay and other places) my favorite softwares that i use (once in a year) and the rest is in a box in the storage

I guess this is the best way.. well anyways they got maybe 5-10 years lifetime left?
then i got many many empty floppies

[Karlos]

@Apache

If you really want to trash the disks, just run a nice strong magnet over them. Quicker than formatting and just as likely to make them unusable.

That said, I agree with Adz.

[Jope]

Love your high sense of moral. :-)

However just go with the option of formatting them as you need empty floppies.

Just owning a bunch of ancient pirated software is not going to get you into any trouble. Even selling them probably wouldn't get you anything else, than having your listings deleted from ebay or huuto.net..

[NoFastMem]

In the mid-to-late nineties the Amiga community was pre-occupied with the idea that curbing piracy would save the Amiga market.

It didn't, and formatting fifteen-year-old copies of Sensible Soccer will do little to save it now either.

The best thing you can do for the universe is enjoy them. And if you feel guilty, make a charitable donation.

[therail]

yeah agreed with comment above