Kilrathis Saga - Achive for posterity?

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Thanks for being a dick.
I've got a differing opinion, you can disagree all you like but coming across as some overbearing asshole is clearly a great choice.
Well done!
 
Oh gosh no, my boorish manners and general oaffery have destroyed a *precious opinion*. Don't I know that they're like brilliant works of art, or pure morning dew and should be displayed for all the world to see?

Video games are not an inalienable right. If you want to steal them, you are stealing. This is not some high minded academic opinion that we can all debate, it's a plain and simple fact. Whatever Slashdot told you is wrong. There is no moral imperative here. Go directly to somewhere else.

I had to zap some other guy *just this morning* because he was offering Wing Commander 2 for download as if this were a perfectly natural thing to do. The really awful thing, though, is that the amazing self-centered internet 2 has convinced itself that this is fine and dandy. Awful, awful, awful.
 
Ofcourse, if any of the Wing Commander games would ever become free for download, this would be the last place to discuss it, since it probably appear here first before anywhere else.
 
And we work really hard to get things like that to happen -- that's why you can download Secret Ops today (and believe me, we've been after the original Wing Commander since they first licensed it for a PC Gamer cover disc; it is nowhere near a matter of a company simply not selling a game to you in the exact same form it had fifteen years ago. I want people who can't spend four bucks on eBay to get a game to be able to download it, I *really* do... but crap like this hurts that goal more than anything.)
 
Flashpoint said:
In my opinion, which I know it's not actually world law :), if something is no longer on sale, then copying it cannot be pirating.
Click to expand...


Actually it is under the WIPO:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIPO

More specificly:

The Berene Convention:

http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html

And its follow up the Copyright Treaty. Check out article 6:

http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/wct/trtdocs_wo033.html#P62_6959



Yes, it is piracy even if you're willing to pay for it and the company is not making it available. The copyright holder still has exclusive distribution rights. That means weather you download it from an unauthorized website, or copy it from a friends CD you're still violating the law as established under the aforementioned treaty.

The good news is that its not theft. Its Copyright Infringement. (At least in the US)

[soapbox]

Theft is governed under criminal law and can result in loss of freedoms (ie. Jail time). While Copyright Infringement is governed under civil law and can only result in loss of property (ie. really big fine).

The main difference between the two is that theft deprives the holder of property. While Copyright-Infringement is where a person engages in an action (i.e. copying) that is legally reserved by another party.

No legitimate study has ever found that non-commercial copyright infringement has decreased a rights holder revenue. In fact they have found that the exposure given by P2P, the internet, etc. may increase total income by rights holders.

For you consideration:
"The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales An
Empirical Analysis"
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

"Music in the Age of File Sharing"

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~felten/boorstin-thesis.pdf

[/soapbox]
 
I'm closing this thread before anyone else gets banned for repeating something they heard on Slashdot and thinking that makes them ever so smart.

Don't steal Wing Commander, at least not here. Just don't do it. This is a really easy rule to follow. Even for doofuses.
 
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