is this legal?

[DCUltrapro]

so I was looking on Ebay as I often do for stuff when I saw, without even searching, the following item:

 

eBay Auction -- Item Number: 230627174152

 

and I thought wow, that's cheeky! Asking for a tenner for an emulator disc he burned and a dvd case. Is this even legal? I suppose it is seeing as the console has been dead for years... just thought I'd see what you all thought

[Ninjabba]

Ha, what a fraud. It really surprises me what people try to get a few cents out of the Lynx. The worst so far would be that guy selling the Ladybug demo on eBay.. but maybe this one tries to top that by selling 220 games... wonder which 220 that would be. Probably scraped every binary off this forum.

 

This couldn't be legal in any way... the boot image isn't legal to start with and it looks like he hands it out as well. Not to start about the 220 games of which he owns no license (like Alien Vs. Predator)

[Sub(Function(:))]

No I don't think this is legal. But then the seller will possibly plead ignorance if \ when challenged.

 

I digress but: I see Chip's Challenge on the screenshots, the guy that wrote the game wanted to convert the title to the iPad. The current rights owners declined. So the iPad game became "Chuck's challenge". and this game is a free app.

Edited October 14, 2011 by Sub(Function(:))

[Rex Dart]

Yeah, for some reason I still see discs full of roms on UK ebay.

[sage]

Ever saw the "report item" button on the ebug site?

[DCUltrapro]

well done Sage, of course I reported it!! I just thought I'd see what you guys thought, as if this item wasn't enough, have you guys seen his "Other items for sale" ?? he has a disc for "PC Engine" and a few others, very subtle lol

[Sub(Function(:))]

So it's now 8:21PM CET and the ad is still up.

 

NIce to see eBay are speedy in taking action

[108 Stars]

Of course this is illegal.

But the sad truth is that eBay; only the UK version to my knowledge; allows ROM-auctions. I have reported such auctions several times, not a single one was stopped. eBay.co.uk is full of ROM-discs for all Sega, Nintendo and Atari-systems.

 

I really wish they would act, but they just don´t care.

[svenski]

ebay UK do take down listings but they aren't brilliant and from time to time tend to turn a blind eye if the offending listing relates to one of their power sellers.

[108 Stars]

From time to time?

Seriously, the offers for ROMs are always there, and lots of them.

[DCUltrapro]

surely Ebay can get in trouble for this if Atari or some other copy right holder found out and they had been made aware but did nothing, right?

[boxpressed]

Removed now.

[Sub(Function(:))]

surely Ebay can get in trouble for this if Atari or some other copy right holder found out and they had been made aware but did nothing, right?

 

I think the copyright owner would have to be the one making the complaint, and some copyright owners can be damn hard to track down.

 

But there are some that might want to flex there legal muscles, certain obvious ones that spring to mind (Rage, née Ultimate) and of-course Nintendo or Atari themselves.

 

Problem then is how do they know some one has already complained, and eBay ignored the information.

 

I suppose it could happen but I see the chance as slim, but possible if the wind is coming from the correct direction

[sage]

[quote name=Sub(Function()' timestamp='1318862301' post='2390621]

I think the copyright owner would have to be the one making the complaint, and some copyright owners can be damn hard to track down.

 

As long as I do not know if some of my productions are on the CD, I cannot do anything. We had a similar problem with some download portal in germany some years ago.

[heid587]

i really fail to see the problem in selling roms on cd, dont get me wrong i think if the publisher is still active than it shouldn't be included.. i had brought a 6dvd set from the uk containing everything for my amiga cd32 for 6pounds and there freely available to download on the net, though theres no way i could download 6 full dvd's worth of games for that price let alone the time it would take to find them and considering the norms for 3gb of download here is au$50 so it was easily justified to pay that

... just my 2 cents is all.

Edited December 26, 2011 by heid587

[ThomH]

I think you're saying that morally, in the specific circumstances, the sale of ROMs is okay because it does no actual harm to anyone?

 

The counter arguments would be:

• the conclusion that it does no harm is an inference, not a fact. For all we know someone somewhere has legal ownership of the relevant titles, and e.g. the Wii's Virtual Console is a demonstrable surviving market for otherwise archaic video games;
  
• in any case application of the law shouldn't be subjective. Copyright as a whole protects the ability of an author to make a profit, thereby motivating further creative works to the benefit of society. Even if there are exemptions to the general rules that you think would be beneficial (such as a shorter copyright period for ephemeral products or a rule under which properties lapse into the public domain if not exploited for a certain number of years), the point of a democracy is that laws are decided by a body that is elected to weigh up a variety of differing opinions. So ignoring the illegality of something just because you think it is moral is itself ethically questionable.
  

Edited December 27, 2011 by ThomH

[LX.NET]

ThomH, eloquently said. I concur.