Is anyone else concerned about copies?

[Atari8bitCarts]

I'm just getting in to homebrew development. I guess I have a different view on copyright and property. When I make games, I'm going to release not just the binaries but the source code as well. Both will be covered by a "copyleft" licence, which means if anyone ever distributes my games, they will also have to distribute the source code.

 

Personally I think if you're making a product, you should give it away for free, but I don't have an issue with charging money for a commodity, so long as you also distribute it with its source code. Its then up to that person who bought the commodity to distribute it at whatever price they want.

 

I think if you've licenced your games under traditional copyright, you should have your property respected, but I think you shouldn't have property in your games at all. The concept of copyright is what this seller is hiding behind in order to produce repros and pass them off as originals.

 

If you release your games under a copyleft licence, like the GPL or a permissive licence, like the BSD licence, you'd have a way of suing this morally bankrupt seller because he would be claiming private property contradictory to a free software copyleft licence.

 

Just on the topic of "killer collections", I personally think the value in software (games) is in their function and not their status as objects with rarity. Rarity is just mystical nonsense. Marx called it commodity fetishism. I personally see "counterfeits" and repros as the same as "originals" because they have the exact same ROM data and same function. Repros might even be superior to originals because they may last longer.

 

But by all means, no one should be allowed to stop you from collecting rare objects, as long as you're not harming anyone.

Homebrews and project carts are not the same (And those typically are marked as such), flat out copying someone else's work and not identifying it as such is what bothers me.

Converting a game for disk, or new game, or a redeveloped game, to me offers value and enhances the hobby.

This discussion is around the asshole that sets out to steal someone else's work, or deceive someone by misrepresenting what they did.

Whether you like it or not, everything in life, and as possession, has value.

You can't go and start printing money

I can't go and produce anything I want and call it mine and original.

For collecting, hence the "collecting", original items have value due to their availability, scarcity, condition, etc.

The value comes from the market. And that fluctuates.

If I was allowed to knock off anything I wanted and do my damnedest to make it exact, then why protect anything or anyone then? i.e, China.

I don't know what you do for a living, but say you or the company you work for makes a part. I'll copy it, make it cheaper, and run your company out of business.

We lost soo many jobs in the US because of that mentality. We all have it. Cheaper is better. A copy is just as good.

That is why there is protection. That is what helps creativity and competition.

 

Back in the 1980's, for cartridges, it wasn't easy to copy and create cases, artwork, and inserts that looked as good. Today that isn't an issue.

I could easily reproduce labels for some carts that have missing or damaged labels, and I could just as easily hide the fact that I made them.

But that would be wrong.

 

ok, for your game: I don't want to follow your rules, I'll mark it as my work, and distribute it anyway that I chose. You can't have it both ways

 

Of course there is abuse of copyright laws, etc. And that sucks.

 

It's simple, if you want to test your printing, artwork, molding, etc. skills, do so by marking it as a reproduction.

 

Again, my opinion.

[vidak]

On I totally agree, I'm just offering a way to skewer these guys. If you had used a copyleft licence it would be 100% illegal and you could sue him.

[R.Cade]

Don't bother trying to go through eBay to handle this. What you CAN do is buy one and then file a mail fraud form with USPS.

 

This would be a real crime, and one or two of these will end his reign quickly.

 

https://about.usps.com/forms/ps8165.pdf

 

"Misrepresentation of product or service"

Edited July 16, 2017 by R.Cade

[Nightbringer]

On I totally agree, I'm just offering a way to skewer these guys. If you had used a copyleft licence it would be 100% illegal and you could sue him.

 

It's illegal anyway. Adding a copyleft license doesn't make it any more illegal than a non-permissive license.