• Beej Jorgensen
    link
    fedilink
    988 months ago

    Related: Internet Archive hosts zillions of abandoned games. Publishers are currently trying to sue it out of existence. They accept donations.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      188 months ago

      I mean, I’d like games to be available, but I don’t see archive.org’s legal basis for providing it. I mean, the stuff is copyrighted. Lack of commercial availability doesn’t change that.

      Yeah, some abandonware sites might try to just fly under the radar, and some rightsholders might just not care, might not be much value there. But once you’re in a situation where a publisher is fighting a legal battle with you, you’re clearly not trying that route.

      You can argue that copyright law should be revised. Maybe copyright on video games should be shorter or something. Maybe there should be some provision that if a product isn’t offered for sale for longer than a certain period of time, copyright goes away. But I don’t think that this is the route to get that done.

      • haui
        link
        fedilink
        618 months ago

        Legal doesnt mean correct. Slavery used to be legal.

        Copyright is a broken system that gives giant corporations the power to hold art ransom. There is no argument that holds up against art being preserved.

        So no, copyright might have had use in the past but by now it is morally sound to pirate.

          • haui
            link
            fedilink
            118 months ago

            If thats the case they pushed a lot of pro IP sentiment with it.

            It’s cruel that companies are even able to do shit like this and we should destroy them for it.

              • haui
                link
                fedilink
                48 months ago

                Maybe copyright on video games should be shorter or something. Maybe there should be some provision that if a product isn’t offered for sale for longer than a certain period of time, copyright goes away. But I don’t think that this is the route to get that done.

                This person is playing devils advocate imo. Either they are very interested in law and facts and not much in justice or they‘re low level trolling. I cant say and I dont want to accuse them so I‘ll go with the former.

                It is completely obvious imo that the IP scam is going rampant and companies are finding new ways to abuse customers every day, although the governments worldwide are pushing back (finally).

                Still, stating it like this shows they could not care less and the lack of compassion with people who feel strongly about freedom and equality rubs me the wrong way.

                Does this male more sense to you?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        148 months ago

        Lack of commercial availability doesn’t change that.

        But is there any reason why it doesn’t?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        68 months ago

        Most people on Lemmy will flat-out tell you that they don’t give a single fuck about copyright and that they have a right to anything that is reproducible. Not only that but they consider it a “moral imperative” to back up that copyrighted material and share it with others, no matter what that actual content is or who created it.

        • JackGreenEarth
          link
          fedilink
          English
          258 months ago

          Well yes, but unironically. Do you really think we should just let data get lost?

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            1
            edit-2
            8 months ago

            No one was being ironic. I think you should do with the data whatever its creator licenses you to do with it. You are not entitled to others’ work simply because it’s reproducible.

        • just another devA
          link
          fedilink
          English
          48 months ago

          I wonder to what degree that would still apply when it’s their work (say, a photo) being used by others in any way they see fit.

          • JackGreenEarth
            link
            fedilink
            English
            108 months ago

            Wouldn’t change anything for me. If I put data on the internet, I put it under a permissive license. (AGPL for code, CC-BY-SA for everything else).

            • just another devA
              link
              fedilink
              English
              98 months ago

              Agreed, those are pretty permissive licenses (though not completely free), but they’re still licenses that you deliberately choose, not ones that were forced upon you.

                  • @[email protected]
                    link
                    fedilink
                    28 months ago

                    The point is that you have it backwards with the license choices. You don’t have some sort of inherent right to prevent others from copying data you produce, it is a choice of society to grant you that exclusive right and if society deems it to do more harm than good to do so (e.g. because 90% of our culture is lost thanks to copyright after it is no longer commercially available but before copyright runs out) then society absolutely has the right to take your copyright away from you again.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  38 months ago

                  Copyleft licenses do force you to do certain things, like make your changes to the code available, and AGPL was made specifically to patch some GPL loopholes. They are technically less free than something like Apache which is essentially “do whatever you want, IDC…”

                  • @[email protected]
                    link
                    fedilink
                    28 months ago

                    As far as I understand, you only have to make your changes to the code available to users of your software. You are free to make any modifications as long as you keep them to yourself and don’t share the binaries (or access the service, in case of AGPL) with anyone. I might be mistaken, though.

                  • @[email protected]
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    2
                    edit-2
                    8 months ago

                    Which are more free depends how you look at it. If we limit the scope to just us then having no restrictions is more free than a copyleft licenses that have any restrictions. If we also consider our users then being able to do what we want includes not giving the same level of freedom to our users, and the same applies to our user’s users. A restriction on us denying freedom ensures gives freedom to others.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              1
              edit-2
              8 months ago

              That’s great, how many millions of dollars or thousands of hours did you spend creating that work?

              If you want to give away your work to the public, that’s your prerogative. That doesn’t entitle you to the works of others.