>It's like photocopying a book
>that is out of print. Who is losing money? Surely, if the book company
>thought there was a market for it they would still sell it. Certainly,
>the person who really wanted to read and or have a copy of the book
>would have bought it legally if it was still available.
Being an student of literature... ;)
Some publishers wait before reprinting a book until "pent up" demand for
a reprint is high enough to warrant reprinting it. I realize I should've
come up with a synonym for reprint, but too bad.
The only reason you are allowed to copy books in college, for instance,
is because of a law that allows copying for educational purposes. The
law is much more eloquently worded, but the point is that it doesn't
allow for rampant copying of out-of-print materials.
By the same token, some copyright owners don't realize that there is such
a demand until people start clammering. A good example is the Activison
Action Pack (there was a C=64 pack as well, correct?). Classic games
were selling so well on consoles and PC's that they got this bright idea
of releasing old 2600 games. If ROM's weren't on the 'net as well as
emulators, how many more of you would have thought about buying the
Action Pack? I know that, as a Mac owner then unaware of Stella, this
was a driving force behind my purchase.
I'll end with this. Look at Disney. My wife is having a conniption (did
I spell that right?), don't ask me why, to find _The Little Mermaid_ on
VHS tape. Disney could make a lot of money selling this tape to people
like my wife. But they can make _more_ money, in their opinion, holding
it back so that people buy other tapes _now_ "while there's still a
chance" and making sure when they re-release _The Little Mermaid_ on DVD
or what-have-you that my wife and her ilk buy it immediately.
There is value in a copyright that is excercised by holding the product
in question off the market, whether intentionally like Disney or for
other reasons like these rare classic games. If you have ROM's that
belong to games you don't own, find the Recylcing Bin or Trash Can and
toss 'em. This is another reason to thank the homebrew 2600 crew for
allowing you to freely download their .bins, and a good reason to
encourage and purchase things like the Cyberpunks CD when these rare and
well researched products present themselves.
Ruffin "Soapbox" Bailey
rufbo@xxxxxxxxxxx
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