Reminder - MoDaCo position on illegal content

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

I'd like to just reaffirm MoDaCo's position regarding piracy and illegal content in the light of some recent questions / postings.

Posts will be censored by myself or my moderation team if:

- They link to illegal ROMs or sites hosting them

- They link to the GBA emulator or sites hosting them (in light of Nintendo's legal stance)

- They link to other illegal content or sites hosting them (eg Smartphone ROMs, Illegal Smartphone games etc. etc.)

Of course, there are those that argue homescreens / ringtones are a grey area - this is true - but I have made an executive decision to let these be posted, and should the copyright owner take issue, they can contact me and I will deal with the offending post immediately.

If you have any issues with this policy, please feel free to post below, contact me directly via PM, E-Mail or MSN, but please avoid arguing for the sake of arguing, and consider my position, and that of the forum :P

P

[EDIT awarner]

Regarding Smartphone ROMS as yet there are no legal Motorola MPX200 ROMS available for download.

[Guest djboo]

why are NAMES of roms censored? i understand linking to them should be censored. i actually own pretty much every console, and most of the good games for them all. i feel no sorrow for taking a rom out with me and playing it out and about. Ive payed good money for my systems and not all are handheld. im unsure of 'fair usage' - ie the allowance to make one personal backup - im of the opinion that this is illegal... but not wrong, and unlikely to cause any issues.

posting the name of a game, may give you an indication of the user having a rom, and in an illegal format. it doesnt prove anything, certainly not enough for a C&D. hell, the person mentioning the compatability could have some interface in their smartphone to a real rom. (suddenly gets ideas about a SD to megadrive slot converter)

hell, boasting about having every rom in the world, and a nuclear bomb, and half the gold from fort knox is not illegal, but maybe a little stupid.

I agree, discussing how to GET the roms, how to COPY them or similar is bad, but just mentioning them is hardly end of world...

*2cents*

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

I agree :D

And you made the point i'd like to emphasise too. As far as i am concerned, i don't care where or how you got hold of ROM's for the emulators. I'm quite happy to assume everyone as innocent until prooven otherwise, however if you brag about blatant illegality (i got them off ebay/i have 3GB of them/i downloaded this the other day) then your posts will be removed.

AFAIK the law does not state anything like "you can back up in case of losing your original", at best it's an interpretation of the fair use laws, however with current events in mind i wouldn't like to try and take that to the courts.

Regardless of that, what is said above is what goes, just watch what you say! :P

[Guest muff]

the problem is that saying you have a rom has an instant side effect - some people will ask you for it, or at least ask where to download it

which then leads to the potential for people to start using the messaging system to discuss rom site locations and actually swap roms

now that is not to say that people WILL use modaco messaging to share files, only that the possibility exists

at the end of the day :-

- ROM dumps are illegal, wether you own the game or not

- fair use is an often argued case for dumps, but legally weak, if not just plain illegal

- download and use for 24 hours being legal is also a myth

please be aware that Paul is setting these rules to protect the MoDaCo group as a whole, not to be nasty to anyone specific

and I for one welcome that

muff

[Guest exosyphen]

I wish alcohol could be warezed ^_^

[Guest buppy]

People are going to swap games/files and do all sorts of silly things both inside and outside this forum. I would not wish a resource such as this to be pounded to death in the courts along with Kazza, Napster and others. The PM system should not be used as a 'poor-mans' P2P network.

I am heavily envolved with the Retro Gaming scene throughout UK and Europe. I exhibit at shows using genuine hardware, most of which is coming to the end of it's useful life. However tempting it maybe to pressure large corporations into making legitimate emulations of our favorite games and software, piracy is not the answer.

Been there, done that..........now look at the mess we're in!

Oh, and before anybody getz any bright ideaz, I'll delete every PM that enquires about ROM's and the suchlike.

Question - Is the PM system moderated to stop such SPAM and Phishing??

[Guest Disco Stu]

It's great to see someone restate the MoDaCo position so eloquently. Thanks for such a good first post and welcome to the forum :lol:

I hope I'm not speaking out of turn (newest mod and all) but I don't believe we operate a Big Brother system here, preferring the forum to moderate itself to a large extent. We welcome members and contributors of all ages, races, nationalities etc etc but ultimately it is a grown-up forum where people are trusted to abide by the rules and overall spirit. And clearly it works very successfully.

However, if you feel the PM system is being abused you should report the offending message to a moderator and we will make sure the appropriate action is taken.

Peace and respect to all MoDaCo members. :D

[Guest buppy]

Thank you for your kind words. My second post now :D

Been a reader of these forums since I had my SPV E100 a year ago, now conscidering becoming a paid-up member as well.

It's difficult not to pick sides with this topic because everyone feels passionatley about games. I also write for an online magazine and it's very very difficult to keep a subject such as this legal. I mainly write about emulation and am at the moment writing an article based around emulating old games on the SPV albeit a E100, E200 C500 etc. The dilema we have always had being a web based magazine is not putting out foot in it regarding copywrite material. With research we found to our disbelief that games you would not dream of being copyrighted are banged-up in chains. Loads of software from the early 80's and we're talking BIG guns like Commodore Nintendo, Atari and the like have had their rights to certain software and their O/S nailed-shut. It's like they waited 20 years and thought oooh we got fancy phones now lets release our old stuff and make loads more money. Of course these old companies with the exception of Nintendo do not exist anymore, but don't forget. Software companies never die, they just get bought by someonelse. :lol: