Copyright

[Tanman]

Is anyone up to speed on the copyright laws for old Atari 800 games? As a kid I cared less. We just made copied for everyone. BUT today, if I wanted to offer copies of these old floppy games, what laws apply?

 

Thanks!

[Cebus Capucinis]

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

 

Atari 800 games would still be eligible for copyright and therefore are still protected under United States copyright law. They won't be public domain for quite a few years now, if they ever will be. They are copyrighted for a term of the author's life plus 70 years, but since a corporate entity holds the copyright, as long as that entity exists in some cases it is considered valid. For more info take a look at that PDF if you want, though it's not really that important to the layman.

 

We all have copies of these games, and likely they will be copied ad infinitum, but technically it is copyright infringement.

[Syfo-Dyas]

I refer to classic Atari games (2600 and 7800 excluded) as abandonware.

 

The company now known as Atari has NOTHING to do with the legacy of Atari we knew growing up. Contributing to that company will in no way help or support our dreams of recovering lost hardware, software, or what have you, nor will it help to support those here who continue to write and develop software and hardware in their own spare time.

 

If the present company known as Atari ever raised any hype about it, I would happily give them the finger. Unless of course they wanted to do a production run of portable Atari 8-bit Laptops with SD and ATR support or something; then and only then would I care what they think.

[atariksi]

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

 

Atari 800 games would still be eligible for copyright and therefore are still protected under United States copyright law. They won't be public domain for quite a few years now, if they ever will be. They are copyrighted for a term of the author's life plus 70 years, but since a corporate entity holds the copyright, as long as that entity exists in some cases it is considered valid. For more info take a look at that PDF if you want, though it's not really that important to the layman.

 

We all have copies of these games, and likely they will be copied ad infinitum, but technically it is copyright infringement.

 

Well, I wouldn't speak for everyone. I have most of the games on original disks or carts or cassettes. Granted some of the disks have gone bad. But I'm sure it's okay to back them up onto a PC in image disk format or file format.

 

Now, the copyright question gets a bit more complex if someone has a nonworking original disk and copies someone else's backup from internet or PC on top of the original disk or keeps it on his PC and considers it a backup of his disk. And it's also "cheating" in one sense that you obtain original disks off of Ebay or someone else who already used them and thus violating the single user rule, but only moral/ethical people would stop themselves from doing this. Then following the logic of noncompliance of ethics/morality: "If you cheat, you mine as well lie.", he can just tell someone that it's a backup of his original disk/cassette/cart or that he's the only owner of those original disks/cassettes/carts.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Hey, I have copies in my possession right now! I'm not saying anyone's a terrible person for doing it, to be honest we wouldn't be able to have these games were it not for people copying them! I'm just saying it's not exactly "above the board". I'll take all the copies you send my way, I'm just acknowledging that it's not exactly legal.

[Sikor]

Some are copyrighted yet - all games from my company (Sikor Soft), all games from First Star Software (Boulder Dash), some from Activision... Some are abandonware, if I know (for example all games from Mirage Software, LK Avalon...).

[Kr0tki]

And it's also "cheating" in one sense that you obtain original disks off of Ebay or someone else who already used them and thus violating the single user rule, but only moral/ethical people would stop themselves from doing this. Then following the logic of noncompliance of ethics/morality: "If you cheat, you mine as well lie."

That's just crazy. What's immoral in buying used software? Does buying used games makes people liars somehow?

Edited March 30, 2010 by Kr0tki

[nosty]

Some are copyrighted yet - all games from my company (Sikor Soft), all games from First Star Software (Boulder Dash), some from Activision... Some are abandonware, if I know (for example all games from Mirage Software, LK Avalon...).

 

As I know there is no "abandonware" term in polish law.

But sometimes the copyright owner can release his software to public domain.

[RevEng]

Abandonware isn't a legal term in the US or Canada either, and I suspect the rest of the world.

[Bryan]

And it's also "cheating" in one sense that you obtain original disks off of Ebay or someone else who already used them and thus violating the single user rule, but only moral/ethical people would stop themselves from doing this. Then following the logic of noncompliance of ethics/morality: "If you cheat, you mine as well lie."

That's just crazy. What's immoral in buying used software? Does buying used games makes people liars somehow?

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US we have what's called the First Sale Doctrine which states that a copyrighted item can be sold and the rights transferred to another.

[Rybags]

AFAIK, onselling rights only come into play for software bought under certain licencing agreements such as bulk site-licences, OEM, and bonus software usually bundled with hardware (e.g. game or DVD player software with a graphics card).

 

I doubt the Abandonware term exists in Legislation anywhere, it's just a term somebody invented. Just because a system is obsolete, doesn't mean that suddenly all software on it becomes open-source or otherwise freely distributable.

 

The other danger with anyone selling repro software is that many titles were in fact produced under licence by Atari and others, usually as Arcade conversions.

 

Many companies still actively protect the old classics such as PacMan, Galaga, etc. especially since retrogame remakes became popular on consoles and phones.

[atariksi]

And it's also "cheating" in one sense that you obtain original disks off of Ebay or someone else who already used them and thus violating the single user rule, but only moral/ethical people would stop themselves from doing this. Then following the logic of noncompliance of ethics/morality: "If you cheat, you mine as well lie."

That's just crazy. What's immoral in buying used software? Does buying used games makes people liars somehow?

I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the US we have what's called the First Sale Doctrine which states that a copyrighted item can be sold and the rights transferred to another.

 

There are software that state specifically that they are meant for single user. What's the link for that as the title "First Sale Doctrine" seems to indicate only first sale matters?

[Cebus Capucinis]

"Abandonware" is almost exactly the same thing as websites that post "If you delete this in 24 hours you're okay" or "You can just have ONE copy and only if you have the original". It's all smoke-and-mirrors in an attempt to justify copyright infringement, but put it in a courtroom and the defense won't last a the 50 seconds it took to put that up on a website.

 

First Sale Doctrine applies to original software. Once an item is sold for the first time the rights to that item get transferred to the buyer. A good example is when you outright buy a car, the title is transferred to your name and you can do with it what you will. Financing is different, but if you outright buy it and then want to take it out into a field and set it on fire, more power to you, it's your car, they can't sue you. So when you bought that boxed copy of Bard's Tale brand new and still have it, sure, that's your copy and you can sell it to your friend or even give it to your friend if you want. What you CAN'T do is make a copy of it to give to your friend.

 

The same applies for used games and that's why it's such a big business. GameStop uses First Sale Doctrine to be able to sell those used games and they have every right to do so. When you buy a copy on Amazon or eBay as long as it is an original copy, it's yours to do what you want with it minus some small restrictions like copying it or forcefully choking someone to death with it. But the key here is it's original.

 

First Sale Doctrine in the US does not apply to making copies of something, because if you made a copy, there was no "first sale" on that copy and therefore you're infringing by creating an original.

[Havok69]

If I can't buy it from the manufacturer, then it shouldn't matter where I get it from - eBay, whatever...

[Cebus Capucinis]

If I can't buy it from the manufacturer, then it shouldn't matter where I get it from - eBay, whatever...

 

It doesn't, as long as you buy an original copy of the game. Buying something someone copied is different.

[a8isa1]

Is anyone up to speed on the copyright laws for old Atari 800 games? As a kid I cared less. We just made copied for everyone. BUT today, if I wanted to offer copies of these old floppy games, what laws apply?

 

Thanks!

 

I personally feel that there should be an official status for "abandonware". Not sure we are there yet but USA copyright rule changes have been moving in the right direction. See below.

 

http://www.copyright...2006/index.html

 

Take note of item #2. I'm not 100% sure what it is saying and I don't want to read anything between the lines but as I said previous, I do believe it is a move in the right direction.

 

- Steve Sheppard

[atariksi]

Is anyone up to speed on the copyright laws for old Atari 800 games? As a kid I cared less. We just made copied for everyone. BUT today, if I wanted to offer copies of these old floppy games, what laws apply?

 

Thanks!

 

I personally feel that there should be an official status for "abandonware". Not sure we are there yet but USA copyright rule changes have been moving in the right direction. See below.

 

http://www.copyright...2006/index.html

 

Take note of item #2. I'm not 100% sure what it is saying and I don't want to read anything between the lines but as I said previous, I do believe it is a move in the right direction.

 

- Steve Sheppard

 

That article states that it's for "3 years" and depending on exact date when that was effective, it may have expired.

 

Also, in the wiki it states the First Sale Doctrine doesn't always apply:

 

"The doctrine of first sale does not include renting and leasing phonorecords and certain types of computer software..."

 

And if you have an original and make a copy for backup and the original goes bad, you are still legal owner. Perhaps, you need to sell the invoice/receipt with the original disk and have no clause like "single user" in order to qualify for First Sale Doctrine exemption.

[RevEng]

I personally feel that there should be an official status for "abandonware". Not sure we are there yet but USA copyright rule changes have been moving in the right direction. See below.

 

http://www.copyright...2006/index.html

 

Take note of item #2. I'm not 100% sure what it is saying and I don't want to read anything between the lines but as I said previous, I do believe it is a move in the right direction.

 

- Steve Sheppard

Actually, your #2 point is a small concession in a larger move in the absolute wrong direction for copyrights.

 

What you linked to is an exemption in the DMCA, the act that makes it a federal crime to reverse engineer any digital copyright protection. The DMCA has actually given companies the ability to make traditional "fair use" scenarios illegal.

 

Want to back up your DVD in case it gets scratched? Regular copyright says it's ok to do, but the DMCA makes it a federal crime to pick the locks required to make that copy.

 

And the concession you linked to makes legal to pick the digital locks on obsolete format, but regular copyright law will still make it illegal to distribute any copies. (except under fair-use exemptions)

 

@atariski: The only software that's exempt from the first sale doctrine is that with a click-to-accept EULA or that which has a contract agreement. If it's sold to you without you accepting a special agreement, the software is covered by the first sale doctrine.

[awace]

************************************************************************************************

Is anyone up to speed on the copyright laws for old Atari 800 games? As a kid I cared less. We just made copied for everyone. BUT today, if I wanted to offer copies of these old floppy games, what laws apply?

 

Thanks!

All of the © Laws Apply Talk to a Laywer If they are in a good mood they will happily talk to you about © law Be shure to include a

Free cheesburger and fries and buy them a pop from nearest machine then they might just discuss for Free © law but dont mention the word Retianer!..

Once I got paid $3 an hour to play a demo version of a game for the atari 800 Mr TNT I should have just bought the prototype cart then.

As like crackpots giveaway at grocery store I never obtained the promo carts..

now © is weird cause some guy at hamventention once as a normal vendor said Donkey Kong® and NINTENDO® of america® will sue everyone any time even if its an old © they will re © it before sueing you! .. now since its been 17 years and there is no $ in Atari800 Atari400 and Warner Brothers no longer supports Atari © repair shops the computer is obsolete but the new games made HERE are©

ed games if you change the name of the game and the grapics you can get away w making youre own version . BUT i call it an atari cartridge not a VCS or game program. A original listing is © the .bin file is ©ed but since i modified it and changed the name and graphics to aw's and ©'s on my asteroids®©ATARI® Atari is a Registered Trade Mark® of ATARI INC.© 1972 type game then i can get away with it MY game is not endorsed or supported by Atari ® AtariAGE® or any Atari ENTITY IN ANY WAY its a prototype only cart and a one of a kind not intended to compete w old Asteroids® and is for informational and educational purposes only!.

now if you make a game from scratch its ok NINTENDO had some weird © © settelment w Atari ® for there propritery type NES DOS so you could not run a bootleg game on the NES w out paying to have the NINTENDO ® SEAL of QUALITY ® on the label witch ATARI®

TENGEN® could have just opted not to use the NINTENDO ® seal of quality witch is why i hate TREMAIL he runied Atari ® on purpose and may he rest in peace but He probably had a heart attack he killed Atari® and COMMODORE too!!!!! My atari survived lightining the disc drive blew up the 850 blew up but the computer sat there and said READY_ witch means Atari knew what they were doing. all the atari needed was a PCI sio connection like the emulation . I wish Atari would Sell Cd roms w atari800.exe.

 

Here is there address

 

Atari

417 5th Ave # 7

New York, NY 10016-2204

 

There current Phone number is.

 

Phone Number (212) 726-6500

This is avalible when they are Hiring.

Good luck.

ALl © laws still apply.

If i make a PAcman®'namco' {[(Midway)(Licenced form )]} © Namco© inc.

If I take a Pacman rom and modify it its ok but if i make a FAKE Midway like pacman pcb thats ILLEGAL so i s copying a rom but if youre

fixing a rom for a actual board and its only for that board its ok as long as the Marquee is not FAKE on the cabinet and you use a original pcb.

if you make a crapload of fake 20th reunion or 25th reunion pcbs and cabinets you would be in © law violation w NAMCO.

however you can take a original runion pcb and do what ever with it . you just cant make fake pcb;s bootleg type.

TAITO DID A LOT OF USING bootleg type pcbs and just sent out UNIVERSAL stamp like stickers to make them licenced! in JAPAN. the JAPANEESE are Differnt and take © law differntly than we do . A bootleg GALAG pcb could be a original GAME in japan cause there is so many games in japan they would tie up court for 30 years figuring out what was bootleg not to metion some of the bootleg games were in fact the original game like MAGNAVOX pong was STOLEN by Atari but a little unknown fact is its aVARIENT and they actually PAID Ralf off with a licence fee! so YES © laws still apply today.

WHAT was youre intent anyway most Atari 800 games became worthless when my dad © ed a eeprom for someone for a socalled happy drive Iwas like ok there is the end of copy protection for the planet my dad said WHO CARES I SAID I do he said youre the only one . I said what about WINDOWS He replyed I pay Microsoft $10,000 A year for MSDN subscriptions DONT WORRY ABOUT xp ! I said OK.

I still have all the Atari games and the ONE origianl game i got from WIZARDS WORK . they make hunting games for the pc now! I got some canyon climber game there and I liked it the ONLY GMAE I purchased was CARTS from TARGET notice there new return policy no returns on video games or music unless in original wrapper unless defective.. I purposely once mutleated a nintendo smb game once then replaced it w returning the new one as defective that was nintendo 's fault for price fixing TENGEN ® TETRIS® NINTEDNO OF AMERICA® anyway I told Target I can still buy a new one take the old one and return the new one to fix the old one and they said NOTHING.

a heat gun and some sticker swaping and viola original becomes new again.

 

So

back to pong I bought a Game called TAIL OF ß LYRA it was cool but the game got corupeted but i think i fixed it with ULTRA COPY the most

ILLEGAL Atari400/800 file out there but it is cool I circumvented the shareware version of APE ® with it.'

I just mirror drive2 as drive 1 then copy a disk from it self to it self twice using a blank atari disk or just use miror of drive 1 to drive2 as the destination then save the file as a ATR! it worked and now my original NON ILLEGAL ATARI BASIC programs i

TYPED in by hand are now online as whell as the Atari TWIN CITY INTRESEST GROUP TAIG disks some of them are now on cdrom! with means no wires no crap laying all arond the house exept more IMB format computers 1 dual core ATHALON® with MMX® INTEL 2000 cros lices pattent and my Compaq HP laptop! with Atari800.exe..

I can now play my old Atari ® basic game I can run Microsoft Mbasic Witch means Microsoft basic on my atari even thouugh it was a copy I never run it anyway cause i dont do ms basic as whell as ATARI basic.

Artillery Duel/Chuck Norris Superkicks Double Ender label witch i never saw anyway untill atari age! .

its like atryirary dual its fun i added an explosion my brother was using the atari instead of apple cause he needed to know math

he loaded the file for math class and told me to push POP then push return(enter).

the Tail of Beta LYRA was my fav game it used the speaker for the keyboard and used color bursting like missile command® witch i can get

over 1 mill on S option push S in Missile COMMAND and only smart bombs come if you have trackball push t or j for trackball or joystick.

Atari 800 Carts are easy to program just save the file as a .bin I bet there is a basic to bin converter somewhere out there.

My next project is to use DE RE Atari manual to program ASSEMBLER EDITOR cart® to type in checkers and learn assembly language witch is like grapple.c for quake1 or quake2!..

HAve fun and dont worry unless you make $ copyrighed stuff you have mostly nothing to worry about. EBAY is noted for being NIAVE about

© when it comes to video games bootleg games are worth twice as mutch as the original ones EXEPT for the NES ON A CHIP witch IS A CLEAR

© violation 7,999,999 YAHaw right there is 19 games when you remove the crock jumper anyway I destroyed that cart and the whole game too then thing was a total rip off on a nes i can see a cart with a weird version of smb but leave it at that one bunny game or cat. dont make multi carts unless you change all the graphics and game play! no wonder they got sued and lost I remember the guy at RIDGEDALE I bought a game from him for $10 just for the cool box witch had donkeys from shrek on it and the thing in side was crap the plastic broke and the thing raley boots I could have bought a REAL famicom! damn I dont consider it a collectors item and want to get rid of it but keep it just for the funny box..

I did like that i could post Christmas Tree on christmas from TAIG Ugene OREGON Atari inteest

group disk 14 or 13 I upoloaded so every one could enjoy the christmas tree.

http://www.aracnet.com/~atari/atariclub.htm

 

*********************************************

Sorry for the long rant

Edited March 30, 2010 by awace

[potatohead]

License agreements that are rendered and agreed to AS A CONDITION OF SALE are solid. That means you don't get the software, nor do they take your money, until the contract is signed and in the can. Those are generally not transferable as the license agreement is between the buyer, named on the contract, and the vendor. Often the software is limited to a specific machine, region of the world, IP address, and even named users.

 

The little "click here to agree" EULA deals, that occur AFTER THE SALE, really aren't as enforceable. What they are trying to do is capture the ease of retail sale, without also having to bear the cost of real contracts in the transaction. These generally are transferable, meaning you can take your software, remove it from your running environment, then transfer it, and the authentication keys to somebody else with no worries.

 

Software vendors are generally moving to online authentication in an attempt to correct this with technology means, still dodging the cost of a real contractual obligation. These are not as transferable, because of the online activation feature. I tend to avoid these where possible, preferring to either just do a full on contract, or obtain a portable copy, with authentication.

 

The "right of first sale" essentially means, when you buy something, it becomes YOURS. There are no end user conditions on the product that extend past the initial sale. Companies generally employ lots of means to get around that, including online authentication, warranty support being linked to original buyer, etc... With things that do not include those things, it's simply yours! You may destroy it, allow another user to use it, sell it, keep it, whatever.

 

In ordinary terms, it means you can't sell something with conditions like, "I'll let you buy this, only if you don't let Bob use it." That's not generally legal in the US. We have rentals for that purpose, not sales.

 

On the topic of old software...

 

Look, it's all under copyright, and will stay under copyright, until most of us are long dead, and that's how it is. If that makes you unhappy, join the club! The truth is, we've been extending copyright every year that Disney is faced with Mickey Mouse entering the Public Domain, and that trend appears to be set for the foreseeable future. The SCOTUS has ruled that extending copyright doesn't break the intent of law, and so it's being done.

 

What that means is this ENTIRE hobby runs at the pleasure of those who own those works. This is true whether or not they know, or deserve it. It's simply true.

 

What it also means, is if we keep it a hobby, run under the radar, respect the property, and most importantly, don't personally benefit from those works, it's going to largely be ok.

 

Please think about that and how much fun this old stuff is, and respect it for those reasons. Also think about modern gaming, where they've advanced the tech to the point where this hobby may not even exist! That's a reality folks. We might be living in the best of retro times right now, and that is worth not rocking the boat.

 

Keep it low key, don't exploit it, have fun, learn, do, build, and for God's sake, don't go pissing the owners off, or a lot of us will lose, and that's just how it is. GAME ON people!

[awace]

License agreements that are rendered and agreed to AS A CONDITION OF SALE are solid. That means you don't get the software, nor do they take your money, until the contract is signed and in the can. Those are generally not transferable as the license agreement is between the buyer, named on the contract, and the vendor. Often the software is limited to a specific machine, region of the world, IP address, and even named users.

 

The little "click here to agree" EULA deals, that occur AFTER THE SALE, really aren't as enforceable. What they are trying to do is capture the ease of retail sale, without also having to bear the cost of real contracts in the transaction. These generally are transferable, meaning you can take your software, remove it from your running environment, then transfer it, and the authentication keys to somebody else with no worries.

 

Software vendors are generally moving to online authentication in an attempt to correct this with technology means, still dodging the cost of a real contractual obligation. These are not as transferable, because of the online activation feature. I tend to avoid these where possible, preferring to either just do a full on contract, or obtain a portable copy, with authentication.

 

The "right of first sale" essentially means, when you buy something, it becomes YOURS. There are no end user conditions on the product that extend past the initial sale. Companies generally employ lots of means to get around that, including online authentication, warranty support being linked to original buyer, etc... With things that do not include those things, it's simply yours! You may destroy it, allow another user to use it, sell it, keep it, whatever.

 

In ordinary terms, it means you can't sell something with conditions like, "I'll let you buy this, only if you don't let Bob use it." That's not generally legal in the US. We have rentals for that purpose, not sales.

 

On the topic of old software...

 

Look, it's all under copyright, and will stay under copyright, until most of us are long dead, and that's how it is. If that makes you unhappy, join the club! The truth is, we've been extending copyright every year that Disney is faced with Mickey Mouse entering the Public Domain, and that trend appears to be set for the foreseeable future. The SCOTUS has ruled that extending copyright doesn't break the intent of law, and so it's being done.

 

What that means is this ENTIRE hobby runs at the pleasure of those who own those works. This is true whether or not they know, or deserve it. It's simply true.

 

What it also means, is if we keep it a hobby, run under the radar, respect the property, and most importantly, don't personally benefit from those works, it's going to largely be ok.

 

Please think about that and how much fun this old stuff is, and respect it for those reasons. Also think about modern gaming, where they've advanced the tech to the point where this hobby may not even exist! That's a reality folks. We might be living in the best of retro times right now, and that is worth not rocking the boat.

 

Keep it low key, don't exploit it, have fun, learn, do, build, and for God's sake, don't go pissing the owners off, or a lot of us will lose, and that's just how it is. GAME ON people!

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

1st off i hate active x I couldnt edit my rant anyway anything thats ©ed is still © bythe person who ©ed it.

[Havok69]

Keep it low key, don't exploit it, have fun, learn, do, build, and for God's sake, don't go pissing the owners off, or a lot of us will lose, and that's just how it is. GAME ON people!

 

That perfectly sums it up right there. Although it's not economically feasible for Atari to enforce these rights, (even though in my personal opinion 8 bit products should be labelled as abandonware) they can at any time, and ruin the whole thing.

 

 

 

[RevEng]

...The little "click here to agree" EULA deals, that occur AFTER THE SALE, really aren't as enforceable...

They're far from unenforceable; at best you could describe them as grey.

 

EULAs have been enforced in previous court cases. The wikipedia entry on software license agreements cites some of the cases.

[atariksi]

I personally feel that there should be an official status for "abandonware". Not sure we are there yet but USA copyright rule changes have been moving in the right direction. See below.

 

http://www.copyright...2006/index.html

 

Take note of item #2. I'm not 100% sure what it is saying and I don't want to read anything between the lines but as I said previous, I do believe it is a move in the right direction.

 

- Steve Sheppard

Actually, your #2 point is a small concession in a larger move in the absolute wrong direction for copyrights.

 

What you linked to is an exemption in the DMCA, the act that makes it a federal crime to reverse engineer any digital copyright protection. The DMCA has actually given companies the ability to make traditional "fair use" scenarios illegal.

 

Want to back up your DVD in case it gets scratched? Regular copyright says it's ok to do, but the DMCA makes it a federal crime to pick the locks required to make that copy.

 

And the concession you linked to makes legal to pick the digital locks on obsolete format, but regular copyright law will still make it illegal to distribute any copies. (except under fair-use exemptions)

...

Most of the disk-based software I bought specifically tell you to make back-up before even using.

 

@atariski: The only software that's exempt from the first sale doctrine is that with a click-to-accept EULA or that which has a contract agreement. If it's sold to you without you accepting a special agreement, the software is covered by the first sale doctrine.

 

There's also this "not for resale" stuff flying around ebay.

[Wrathchild]

Can I widen the discussion, for example if I wanted to go back to completing my attempt at porting Combat to the A8 then one would assume this is wrong from the outset and shouldn't be attempted. From that 'thinking' I then ask why should someone think that... our morals... the perception of threat that Atari will come down on you like a tonne of bricks... 'Combat' itself was a seminal work and we're not worthy? I then relate this to the few A8->5200 ports I've done and think, really is there any difference between having done those and doing Combat? Then you could go onto the differences between 1) releasing just the binaries to the community/world 2) selling this for 'cost' and 3) adding on a bit of profit for your troubles. All of those have issues. 1) is this fair, say you release a cart image that can be played under emulation not all h/w owners can produce their own cart from that and so its not fair on them. Community then says 'make us a xex or atr version'. Could be easy or hard to do. 2) who determines fair 'cost'? 3) now you are risking wrath. The community may be a mix of 1) and 2) supporters with few grateful 3s. Outside of the community you only need one to say "Hey, Mr Software House, did you know X is doing Y?" The S/W house may have known but chose to ignore (or silently support) or didn't know however now they have been alerted have to act.

 

So far, for the 8-bit machines, my impression is that a fair amount of 'turning a blind eye' must be going on. Where I see the most likely source of objection is with titles that have been snapped up licence wise by companies producing mobile versions. "If we paid, you should too", "yeah but you have an active 'market'", "duh, so do you"... "oh.. err.. yes.. but.. OK you win".

 

Sorry if that sounds a bit random, just my thoughts in a hotel room working away from home currently.

 

Mark