General Category > General Discussion
alert- ebay member "orienblack" is selling thecoverproject covers for $15 a pop!
Mick Dundee:
i guess...... but clicking it again and looking up the items individually i see he/she took it back out of the info.
TheValeman:
I think a little perspective is in order here.
Anything we put up on this site .... barring completely custom created artwork .... is actually illegal anyway. Whatever way you look at it the copying of original artwork is copyright infringement. It doesn't matter that you may have bought the bare game second hand from Ebay etc and just want a nice cover/case for it. Or you want to put it in a DVD case instead of a CD case. The owner of the cover in question has complete control over how they want their product delivered etc.
In light of that I personally don't have too big a problem if someone takes my N64 covers and sells someone a UGC so they can protect their original cart and make it look nice on a shelf. Sure it miffs me when we don't get credit for the cover ... but considering the legal issues of doing what we are doing I can't see the problem. Hey, if someone is stupid enough to buy a UGC+cover for $15 then they probably have too much money or no common sense. Or Both :)
What I DO object to is using our covers to facilitate pirated material, especially around CD/DVD based games. I have always objected to us hosting covers for CD/DVD based products given how easy it is for people to copy them. You can always say that people get those second hand without covers too but we all know that the vast majority of people are probably using copied games. That's why I was happy to get my huge collection of N64 covers up here but after I uploaded a few Dreamcast/PSX games I felt it wasn't aligned with my views to put any more up. That's just my thoughts on the matter ....
Snowcone:
I agree with just about everything TheValeman had to say on this topic. We don't own the work and we honestly have no say what others do with it in any capacity. Sure it sucks, but I'd never risk selling these simply because it could jeopardize our ability to continue to provide these to the community.
I don't condone piracy either, but I've bought enough second hand games missing covers that I see the value for storing disc based game covers.
Anyway, the bottom line is that people will always try to make a quick buck doing something without any effort. That's all this is. It's not the first time and it's not the last time it'll happen.
TheValeman:
Agreed.
While I personally have issues with putiing up CD/DVD based covers I certainly don't care that others choose to do so. It's purely a personal thing in that regard. And I would hate to see great artwork lost forever etc ... it's invariably the preservation vs potential misuse aspect that plagues all retro preservation efforts and not just covers. At www.retromags.com for instance we scan old gaming magazines but we draw the line at 1999 so as to limit potential damage to companies selling currently available titles. Doesn't make it right AT ALL but as with N64 covers .... they are really old school retro so it's somewhat easier on the conscience.
Snowcone once stated that our site wouldn't have any impact on the Chinese knock off merchants as they simply buy one original and print a zillion copies and I agree with him 100% on that one.
But it only takes one Company .. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo ... to decide that we are infringing on their IP and they could come down on us like a ton of bricks. Far less likely to happen over N64 , Genesis or SNES than because we have Wii covers etc. Hence a certain self preservation aspect to my comments as well.
I freely admit that I sold off my N64 collection in UGC's with printed covers and had no issues with it because they were original manuals and carts so from my perspective I didn't see anything wrong with it. So I do get that you will get original disc games sold without covers too. That's why I don't have too many issues if someone wants to make an original cart/disc look nicer and store safer for a potential buyer.
AppleQueso:
I generally agree, but I need to respond to a few things.
--- Quote ---What I DO object to is using our covers to facilitate pirated material, especially around CD/DVD based games. I have always objected to us hosting covers for CD/DVD based products given how easy it is for people to copy them. You can always say that people get those second hand without covers too but we all know that the vast majority of people are probably using copied games. That's why I was happy to get my huge collection of N64 covers up here but after I uploaded a few Dreamcast/PSX games I felt it wasn't aligned with my views to put any more up. That's just my thoughts on the matter ....
--- End quote ---
I'm going to have to strongly object to this assertion. Finding disc based games second hand without covers is extremely common, anybody who collects any amount of Playstation, Dreamcast, Saturn, Xbox, Gamecube, etc games can tell you this. Not to mention, just taking one look around at the posters on this forum will tell you that a vast majority of us are collectors. It's no coincidence that our site is popular among collector-oriented sites such as Racketboy. I honestly do believe that the number of people who use our covers for pirated games is very much in the minority compared to people using them to house their actual collections. Besides, I doubt a pirate cares too much about how their collection looks on a shelf anyhow.
--- Quote ---But it only takes one Company .. Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo ... to decide that we are infringing on their IP and they could come down on us like a ton of bricks. Far less likely to happen over N64 , Genesis or SNES than because we have Wii covers etc. Hence a certain self preservation aspect to my comments as well.
--- End quote ---
Given our low visibility compared to similar sites, don't you think that if there was any danger in us getting shut down that we would've seen a site like cdcovers.cc threatened with legal action long before us? We may be technically infringing on their copyrights, but we're not depriving them of profit. Nintendo likely knows about us, as to most of the major companies, and they aren't concerned because nothing we're doing is harming them. Shutting us down would be nothing but a PR nightmare and a waste of their own money and resources..
And we don't facilitate piracy. We never have, and honestly don't think we ever could. The only way we would be facilitating piracy would be if we were providing a means to obtaining or using pirated games. Cover art doesn't do that.