EmuParadise has removed its entire library of retro game ROMs and ISOs

[gamevet]

It was a problem that was being addressed in the 80s as well.




I think that the real big difference is that back then people would distribute copies of floppies to their friends, but they weren't allowed to sell bootleg copies. It was the same with VHS and DVD, where people were allowed to make personal backups, but not distribute them for profit. Now, we have people making bootleg carts with ROMs and selling them on ebay, along with copies of games being available at the click of a mouse. It's much more widespread than in the days of copying a floppy, or recording a movie/show to a video tape.

[Team Andromeda]

Allow me.


TA you're doing that thing again where you're not grasping the conversation. Please step back and carefully read what is being said to you ok?

I did tbh. I even stayed on topic at the start too 'just' the fatal mistake of 'responding' to off-topic comments about film and music piracy. My beef was with Nintendo and the damage their moves are doing to sites that are the only real place anyone who's into games and has a passion for games would be able to get ROMs from long forgotten systems or Arcade games never ported.
Piracy is illegal it always has been and always wil be.. Backing up content/recording content to blank media isn't quite so clear, isn't it?. Like in most laws, there are some grey areas. And the law with regards to the digital age, has always been playing catch up, well at least in the UK anyway.


Nintendo are EVIL and their moves against ROM sites will only end up hurting people who love the industry, not protect it far from it. Why anyone gives the dinosaur that is Nintendo the time of day, much less try and defend it... Is beyond me. I've had it with Nintendo.

[Mega Drive Bowlsey]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Nintendo are evil, but their business practices are woefully antiquated and anti-consumer.

[Ecco]

I'm really glad that this thread introduced me to DP.

You know, the rapper DP, aka "Digital Protection."

Don't miss his second song released in 2009 lol:

[Leynos]

Nothing compared to the original.

[lumclaw]

Old people, people with kids, and (believe it or not) mentally disabled people. You can't scratch a VHS tape, and there aren't any menus to navigate or functions you need an easily-lost remote control to access.

BTW it says AHOV was the last major release, but I think there were quite a few smaller/non-debut releases after that.

I've heard Cars was a rarity. Foreign markets went on longer, apparently you could get Ponyo in Japan.

[MrMatthews]

Aren’t all those Ghibli movies kinda old, anyway? Like, VHS old?

[lumclaw]

Aren’t all those Ghibli movies kinda old, anyway? Like, VHS old?

It's 2008.

[Ecco]

I'm really glad that this thread introduced me to DP.

You know, the rapper DP, aka "Digital Protection."

Don't miss his second song released in 2009 lol:

Yeah all of DP is great lol.

In the 2nd video, it's hilarious that it's never made clear what the kids are actually doing? As if the record company was having trouble defining what they were rapping against.

The boy is making copies on blank CD's... But why? Has there ever been a market of a boy making CD's of info that is apparently freely available online? In that case, people can just download it themselves.

Then the girl has a dufflebag of thousands of dollars. For what? Running a website of file-sharing? I thought such sites were non-profit, or I thought EmuParadise was. They left her case more vague because imagine the video trying to make the case that she got raided and arrested for ripping her DVD's onto a file-sharing site and making thousands of dollars lol.

It's almost too unreal for kids to relate to what the video is even trying to stand against. Which is more just free info-sharing and downloading.

The whole topic seems just impossible for people to even define in reasonable terms.

[gamevet]

Nothing compared to the original.

I posted that about a page ago. That's why it was brought up. The original also had 2 kids talking about copying a floppy, before that video showed up on their computer screen.

I was trying to find the original from the 80's that had Mr. T telling you not to copy that floppy.

[MrMatthews]

It's 2008.

Huh! I assumed Ponyo was originally released in Japan around the same time as My Neighbor Totoro.

I stand corrected.

[Leynos]

Nintendo are EVIL .

MY GOD! He's right!

[cleeg]

I know many have said that there will be three replacement sites that will pop up in place of any that go down, but I think this will all eventually migrate to shadier parts of the web where end users will need some real expertise to get what they want; the days of the free for all are gone now in my opinion.

Granted, I know very little of the way the web works with regard to business, trade and laws etc so may be talking nonsense but it just feels to me that this is how it will go. In some ways I'd be okay with that, for all systems I own I have the means to extract bought copies of my games. But if I want to try Snatcher I'm buggered if I'm going to pay triple figures. And it'd be the biggest shame of all if we couldn't play any unreleased protos and such. I loved having a small flavour of the DC Ecco sequel.

One thing I can't quite understand: If I buy a second hand copy of any particular completed run title from an individual then all the money that can be made from the dev / pub is already made, correct? So why does it matter to them if the game is distributed for free? I can understand if the game is still commercially available of course.

[NeoVamp]

this will all eventually migrate to shadier parts of the web where end users will need some real expertise to get what they want

Are you really comparing simple torrents to something like the darkweb?

[Ecco]

I know many have said that there will be three replacement sites that will pop up in place of any that go down, but I think this will all eventually migrate to shadier parts of the web where end users will need some real expertise to get what they want; the days of the free for all are gone now in my opinion.

Granted, I know very little of the way the web works with regard to business, trade and laws etc so may be talking nonsense but it just feels to me that this is how it will go. In some ways I'd be okay with that, for all systems I own I have the means to extract bought copies of my games. But if I want to try Snatcher I'm buggered if I'm going to pay triple figures. And it'd be the biggest shame of all if we couldn't play any unreleased protos and such. I loved having a small flavour of the DC Ecco sequel.

One thing I can't quite understand: If I buy a second hand copy of any particular completed run title from an individual then all the money that can be made from the dev / pub is already made, correct? So why does it matter to them if the game is distributed for free? I can understand if the game is still commercially available of course.

Yes, that is the logical or philosophical problem with the anti-copying laws or morality.

Getting a free download or copy isn't actually TAKING anything away from anyone, which is the normal idea of "theft."

It's especially absurd for old games because if people buy the real physical games from the 90's, then Nintendo doesn't make $$ anyway.

And then there are people with their own games from the 90's or 80's that Nintendo doesn't make $$ from people playing.

But now they took down a popular ROM sharing site. I'm really doubtful this could cause more people to buy anything from Nintendo. Yes they have buyable ROM's now, but people can just buy old cartridges, or play their own that they already have (and it's more interesting on the original console anyway).

It's not like there's going to be waves of people buying NES ROM's from Nintendo, just because the ROM site is down.

And the real shame is the historical documentation side of it. Taking down ROM-sharing sites leaves the chance of more games being lost to time.

Especially the oddball games and consoles that most people are not going to buy, like the Sega Pico and whatever else. Not to mention arcade games, and hacks or unofficial games that were exclusive to certain countries.

...


There was kind of an analogue that happened at a coffee shop nearby. For years, cfustomers would take one newspaper and put it on the table, for customers to read it during the day. I enjoyed it because I enjoy reading.

So the managers got it in their head that they were losing 35 cents per day (I'm not even sure what a paper costs), and they moved the newspaper stand to a distant spot by the cash registers, so people could not just pick up a paper and spread it over the table.

Well predictably, there's just less newspaper on the table. The managers did NOT cause people to buy a paper instead of just using it. The end result is less newspaper and less reading. People can read things for free on their phone or whatever.

So basically these situations make people get pushed into free alternatives, not forced into buying things that could be free.