Repro Selling on Sega-16

[oldskool]

Very true, I have edited the last post - not that it really makes a difference or anything. But I like those places and I'd hate to see them go away any time soon. I'm sure after a decade of being around, they are not going to go anywhere though. The only game I have noticed that is missing from some of the ROM sites is Sonic. And it's always the US version. For some reason the EU and JP versions are always present. So maybe SOA did contact some of those sites and just told them to take down the Sonic ROMS but not everything else cause they could care less about everything else.

Also, Sega really could only ask that THEIR roms be taken down. Everyone else like Konami and Capcom would probably have to do the same, specifically for their games. I am not sure if Sega has the rights to down a complete site, or just the files that belong to them.

In any case, I really think that we are over thinking this a bit. I really don't think it's an issue - at all.

[Gamer101]

I don't see a problem with Repros of unreleased, fan translated or prototype games. But selling Repros/Burned Discs of games that were released IMO I see as a no go.

That's just my 2 cents though.

that

[Iced Snowman]

Long live Repros!

[kool kitty89]

Slightly off of the main topic, but how would unlicensed homebrew versions of copyrighted material come into play with all of this? (in the case of actual physical releases, or digital releases)
Obviously, open source stuff wouldn't be an issue (as long as the freeware portions are used exclusively -like Chilly Willy's stuff), but there's been some friction over homebrew ports/projects before in the retro community (some things on Atariage come to mind -especially some things for Colecovision), though never any actual legal issues/action. (just complaints and arguments among actual forum members)

Hacks of existing games might also be a gray area, though (depending on how extensive a hack is), they also may not even be a version of the original game. (though obviously still using copyrighted material without permission of the IP holder)

Or for that matter, not just modern hacks, but what about old pirate/hacked games for various systems? (like Super Mario World 64 on the MD, Super Boy on the MSX and SMS, among various others)

[zetastrike]

What does it matter if it's a repro of a game that was never released, like Starfox 2? Nintendo never made any money off of it and AFAIK haven't made it available on the VC, so you're not taking any money away from them. I know it's a grey area, but I feel like certain types of repros are perfectly legit. If we go this far, then how can we talk about the Everdrive freely without the man shutting us down? As far as piracy goes, the ED is worse than a repro.

[djshok]

What does it matter if it's a repro of a game that was never released, like Starfox 2? Nintendo never made any money off of it and AFAIK haven't made it available on the VC, so you're not taking any money away from them. I know it's a grey area, but I feel like certain types of repros are perfectly legit. If we go this far, then how can we talk about the Everdrive freely without the man shutting us down? As far as piracy goes, the ED is worse than a repro.

I get ya, and believe me, I'm about as in favour of repros as it gets, but I'll play devil's advocate here and toss in my 2 cents as to why some sites might be wary of talking about repros. While Nintendo never made any money off Starfox 2, they still want to hold the rights to it in case they feel like making money from it at some point in the future ie: through VC or some classics compilation release. While unlikely as that is, it's well within their rights to hold on to the property and no doubt their lawyers would make this argument. Ie: "Well how do you know they weren't planning to sell it on VC, etc..." Also they may wish to keep their franchise to a certain quality standard, and if they feel that an incomplete/unreleased game with their name on it doesn't meet their standard then they probably don't want it out there making their franchise look bad and potentially ruining the sales of other Star Fox games. The same is true of any other unreleased games and the companies that own the copyrights to them. If they were so inclined they could always release those games on some form of digital platform. Most never do, but the whole thing with copyright laws is that they're based around securing what-if scenarios in your favour.

Now what would be interesting would be checking up on copyrights to some unreleased games and seeing whether they're expired or not. Big titles like Star Fox are no doubt kept up to date, but lesser known properties like Jelly Boy may be within the public domain by now. Then of course you have properties like ResQ where the copyright owners made them available for free to the public and released the ROM themselves. So yeah, some of these thing are definitely more legal than others but trying to figure out which falls into what category would be a tricky task and no doubt is more trouble than any site admin is willing to deal with, and some people just prefer to err on the side of caution.

Honestly there's nothing to stop you from talking about repros and roms via pm's and email, or doing it over at sega age which has much of the same user base as this site.