On this show i hear a lot of GOG.com. I used to hate the website. because i saw a lot of old games that used to be free and forgotten suddenly being priced( i am in peace with it now becaus of there DRM-Free).
Is it only me but isn't it bad they resell theses games with Dosbox? Just because Dosbox rocks soo hard? and cant Tek Syndicate not just easily resell Old dos games too? I mean all they do is repack the game with a binary. That execute some dosbox code and they get a cut..
I just want to know beside marketing old Games in the passed only. They never really did that much to improve the games they resold that used to be forgotten. Did they?
I know they do more now, but i think in reality they broke down on some Retro Communities that tried to collect old games plus boxart and share for free, because nobody used to care in the passed to collect the money.
I just want it out of my system. I just think somewhere we should draw a line on capitalizing on anything -.-' Also moved it to blog.....
That's a tough question, I suppose it depends on whether the program is still being supported, if it's still relevant, or what the software in question is.
but you A get the original material that may be lost, and B you get somethign that is 100% garenteed to work, and will get support if something isn't working.
I mean no one is stopping you from grabbig dos box and dropping the game in there.
It's doesn't guarantee it works 100%. Having a low resolution game full-screen is not my idea of 100% working. I say this because i know modders/hacks make games work on big resolution. That they dont provide.
Abonware websites provided this service when Windows XP saw daylight and people forgot about these games. To makes sure it wont be forgotten and they did it out of love for the game.
And yeah with support uselessly the version number changes. So its indeed different case but for example photshop 1 from early 90s should be free in my eyes even tho they still re-release new photoshop versions. There is nothing more fun then walk on the graveyard looking for fun old stuff (might sound wrong in a different context).
If someone still has rights to the software, they don't have to make it free, because its there's and nobody else's. They can choose too, but if someone owns the rights, than its there's to do what they wish with it.
If you were a "content creator" that made a living off their intellectual property (IP) you would have a totally different opinion, copyright is one thing that expires over time but the rights to IP do not.
Duh....I probably also would be a different human. But there are a lot of content creators that find other sources of money. Teksyndicate being one of them. I just don't think it should be normal i still earn money for something i did 15 years ago . Specially not software that other people did effort for to make it run on todays machines. Being Dosbox a good example becaus of its GNU GPL and its probably most downloaded piece of software on gog.
I doubt any content creator is going to freely give up a revenue stream even when it stops generating revenue, IP is sold or even given away to the public domain but it's not fair to ask people who created the IP to relinquish all rights to it once a certain time frame has been crossed....once you go down that road you have to include every bit of IP from MS Windows OS to Rembrandt paintings and Mozart concertos, IP is IP regardless of if it is sound, light, bits and bytes, there have been a few instances where the families of content creators have cashed in on IP that was worthless while the creator was alive....
On the flip side though I do see where outdated software should become public domain if for no other reason than it would help emerging countries become computer literate, but that to is a tough nut to crack when you have the likes of Microsoft, Apple, and Google holding most of the cards, MS and Apple would rather sell you something that they think you need than give you something they don't want or will never market again.
Two things that GOG (and others) provide: 1. Service, in making those packages with dosbox rolled up, which is a benefit to some people even if it's fairly minor, along with some level of support in some cases. 2. A legal copy of the game, with some money going back to whoever currently owns the rights.
Like it or not, most "abandonware" games aren't actually, legally "abandoned". Copyrights essentially last until the Disney Company dies, and some years after that, now. It's ridiculous, but it's how it is. Even under the original, more reasonable copyright term of 14 years plus ability to renew for one additional 14 year term if original creator is still alive, a lot of the old abandonware sites were distributing illegally. I remember one early proponent's manifesto claiming anything older than 3 years was up for grabs, which is completely ridiculous itself. But, sure, we're talking about games that are 25+ years old in some cases.
I think we'd see more crack down on abandonware websites regardless of GOG though. There were already several right holders and companies looking to re-release their old games or sell them in some fashion before GOG became big, partially because the some developers were able to buy the rights off the companies at that point since the companies weren't as interested anymore or were dying, partially because of the general rise in retro gaming interest. After all, we are seeing a lot of remasters of older games and re-releases in other contexts too (Nintendos Virtual Console, Playstations PSOne classics, SEGA selling off genesis games in every way possible, even Atari selling off packs of games all over the place). When the greater interest came, there became more reason to try and sell again and to shut down those distributing illegally, along with all the rest of the copyright enforcement craze in the last few years. There's also been some amount of testing if people will buy the old games to see if the market is ready to make some new games in a particular series.
On the other hand, a few companies have ACTUALLY abandoned or otherwise made freely available their older games, and in some cases have done the work for you of getting a copy that will generally work. Bethesda released both Arena and Daggerfall on their website for free years ago, along with a patch and instructions for getting it working in DosBox.
But yeah i don't mean all rights. I don't mean that you could for example create a new photoshop because photoshop 1 is old or make a new squeal to any game because its old.
I sure wish you could.....but we can add Adobe to a long list of companies who would never release an old version to public domain, they would scream that it would dilute their brand and cause confusion among consumers......although some companies like AutoDesk use to give older versions of their AutoCad software to schools to stir interest in CAD/CAM, but I don't think they do that anymore they just deeply discount the license of current software to schools and let the Design/Manufacturing industries pay for it.
Yeah i know. But i didn't make this post because of the reason that i its possible. Its also more of a honest question how people see it and not if its legally possible. Tho i think the entire Virtual World is a mesh of free and payed software and services crossing each-other and if we should consider it honorable what is happening.
So glad I went into trucking instead of software development. 30,000 freeware, shareware and abandonware games is enough for me.
Quatris 11+ was a shareware game I bought in the 90's. I liked it so I bought it. I get an envelope with a diskette and a note telling me the source code had a serial number and if it showed up on a BBS or anywhere he would personally sue my $#@&'s off. I respect that:)
shareware :'( old times XD But i assume you bought the game and not the shareware version of it. :p Shareware was free but usually only one or two levels or 1 episode of a game. Tho i remember you could buy entire disks with 100 of different shareware games to try.
My wife really liked it and there was that 15 dollar "nag screen"(member those:)) and after spending 17 bucks at the drive through I thought "why not?"
I think @The_Space_Bear got it. You say all they do is repack the game, but that takes effort. Great some people know how to use dosbox, others just want to play the game. GOG provide a way to do that, they ad a little value for some people with other extras as well, as well as their installer/gog galaxy, and the creator of the game get s a cut (i presume, though i imagine some of them its the publisher not the creator).
I doubt they were given access to the code, and in some cases, it might not even be available.
In saying that, there should be a point where media goes into the public domain. thank Disney that's being eroded away.