Re: [stella] Supercharger question: Batch convert to CD format?

Subject: Re: [stella] Supercharger question: Batch convert to CD format?
From: Ruffin Bailey <rufbo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 13:51:25 -0500
At 10:58 AM 1/19/99 -0700, you wrote:
>On Tue, 19 Jan 1999, Jon Folkers wrote:
>
>> Nobody asked, but I don't think this is any more illegal than what I had
>> in mind originally, especially since I own the vast majority of these
>> games in cartridge form.
>
>That brings up an interesting issue, and I apologize about rehashing it if
>it has already been thoroughly beaten to death on the list before.  

Uh-oh.  Yep, we've been through it once or twice.  ;^)

>I am sometimes dismayed to see this called "piracy" because I feel there
>is a real difference between duplicating a floppy disk and murdering
>people on the high seas.  

I've always thought that if I was going to commit a crime, it'd have to be
stealing some tiny little something from a boat (like someone's alarm
clock).  Then at least if I was caught and thrown in the slammer, I'd be
able to answer the, "How 'bout you, bub?  Whatcha in fer?" question with,
"BLARNEY, I'm an Irish pirate, you sweeb!"  (Sweeb being an arcane pirate
put-down.)  Point is, no matter what you steal from a boat, you're charged
with piracy.  And no matter how innocent the intent behind the software you
distribute, it's piracy too.

Is it wrong?  For the purposes of this list, yes.  Posting .bins of
copyrighted material can get you booted.  I, for one, agree with this
policy.  There's just too much cool stuff to do with the "open source" code
Piero, Eckhard, and friends have released to even bother with copyrighted
stuff.  So many demos to pick apart and new games to code...  there's
hardly any time to be caught messing with copyrighted bins.

Off this list, preservation might be a issue.  But let's face it, excepting
for a few rare prototypes, we don't have to worry about CtCW or even
Custer's Revenge dropping off of the face of the planet (unfortunately for
the latter!).  Sure my Tron's Deadly Disks' EPROM is slowly losing it's
code, but if it bothered me enough, I personally could make a legal ROM
dump for historical preservation.  If someone else had a game that I cared
enough to preserve, I could start a fund drive and try to buy the danged
thing.  Point is, these games have _value_ and that's what the copyright
laws protect.  Even if, in the long run, the value is excercised only by
letting the commodity slip away...

There are scores if not hundreds of copies of even the most obscure games
out there.  No reason to worry about invoking illegal means of
preservation.  To have copies of these bin's (_any_ bins) without a copy of
the cart is selfish, no matter how you cloak the motivations behind your
ownership (in my opinion of course; don't mean to step on any toes).

Of course ole Thoreau would love some good Civil Disobedience.  Just
remember that jail time is one of the possible (if not probable)
consequences that you should be ready to endure for your cause.  You can
always tell your bunk-mate, "BLARNEY!!!  I'm an IRISH VIRTUAL PIRATE you
SWEEB!!!"

Ruffin Bailey

http://members.aol.com/mactari

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