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View Full Version : AGN's apparent piracy double-standard....



Hermit
03-18-2002, 06:32 PM
I noticed the announcement at the top of this forum dealing with ROMs posted by Orion.

You cannot:
Post or distribute roms/copyrighted material or links to roms/copyrighted material via forums or PMs.

Post an URL and give further directions to a page with roms/copyrighted material or rom/copyrighted material links

That sounds nice that you all are interested in keeping ROM piracy out of the forums for the most part.

But I constantly come across threads where people sit there and explain how to copy and burn Playstation CD's and DVD's, or refer to it in some manner.
Frankly I don't see how you can seperate the 2, seeing as how both Roms and CD's are copyrighted materials, which would go against those rules. Also since Roms and Iso are generally the same thing only in different formats, I don't see how those wouldn't be against the rules either.

Maybe it's just me but I find it slightly hypocritical that some piracy is ok to talk about and some isn't.

I don't really want to single anyone out but the post that made me write this, was a post made by Mottzilla as follows...

Mottzilla: If you got a cd writer you should chip your psx and start copying everything. Best way to get games Go to all the rental places and rent all the good games, copy them, and never need to rent em again or buy em. - excerpt from Axel's "I Just Got It!" thread :eyebrow:

Sorry Mottzilla, don't feel singled out, there are plenty others.

So it's ok to discuss pirated materials. Its ok discuss how to pirate materials youself. But the only thing that's not ok is to ditribute these materials using the forums... that just doesn't sound right to me... maybe it's just me...

What does everyone else think ??

I think AGN needs to make up its mind already :blah:

Cheerio

Daarkseid
03-18-2002, 06:57 PM
Its not a matter of maintaining any sort of integrity, its a matter of AGN saving itself from as much flak as possible.

The halting of distribution of roms and rom sites on AGN is not because of any shared over-ideal against piracy, but simply to keep AGN from being possibly sued and or shut down.

In the end its not whether or not we look hypocritical, its how much trouble AGN can save itself from, especially when its main product, a Zelda clone, uses Nintendo's copyrights without any permission, and the game is givin away to people.

Hermit
03-18-2002, 07:10 PM
So it's all ok as long as ya'll don't get caught... that about sum it up ?

Frankly, I don't care what you guys do on here, I was just posing a question nothing more. Seemed odd that some stuff is banned while other stuff isn't that's all.

Carry on :)

Cheerio

Daarkseid
03-18-2002, 07:12 PM
Originally posted by Hermit
So it's all ok as long as ya'll don't get caught... that about sum it up ?

Yeah, pretty much. Whatever won't get AGN into trouble, either with their host or with companies that shut down sites that distribute illegal files.

Hermit
03-18-2002, 07:16 PM
Ok thanks Daarkseid :)

MottZilla
03-18-2002, 07:40 PM
Dude. I am not handing out PSX games. Telling people they can copy games and such is much different than handing out copyrighted material.

Cronic
03-18-2002, 07:46 PM
Only real reason we care so much about roms here is because we don't want it confused with ZC as they are both along the same lines... th erest we could more or less care less about, and then you have people who are just too pussy to dl a game that's like 10 years old to play on a system that no longer makes it's company any money... go figure.

Needless to say I hate the anti rom types very much for it.

AtmaWeapon
03-19-2002, 12:28 AM
Distributing the ROMs and explaining how to use them are two entirely different things. Basically, it works like this:

I can write an article all about how you can make joints out of weed and you can use bongs to smoke it. I can even write a long essay about why weed is good. I am protected by my right to freedom of speech. However, if I am making bongs and selling them to you or selling weed, I am breaking the law and will be arrested (if I'm caught :evil: ).

It's the same way with ROMs; you can talk about them to your heart's content. You can describe how to get them, burn them, etc. without fear. However, if you are distributing the ROMs themselves or things like mod chips that are (supposedly) illegal in themselves, that is illegal and could get AGN in trouble.

It's not really a double standard; they really are two different things.

Skatche
03-19-2002, 12:31 AM
To summarize in twenty words or less: ROMs are copyrighted Intellectual Property, and documents about how to use them are not.

Hermit
03-19-2002, 12:37 AM
I see... I knew that Atma :) , the thought just never occured to me when I wrote that... kicks himself...

BRAIN FART!!! :laughing:

Cheerio