General Category > General Discussion
Repro site might be selling games in our covers.
PDDestro:
Then why do his prices vary from other repro sellers?
Plus the BS reasoning in his FAQ page:
Q: Is This Legal?
A: Creating these cart's that were never released into the US market, are Legal.
The US & Japan are both signatories to the Berne Convention so that answer doesn't cut the mustard. Also, the argument that you're paying for the materials and work doesn't absolve or somehow cleanse the act. I could charge people for copying retail CDs, supplying blank CDs (material), and then burning them a copy (work) like the bootleggers I've seen in make shift stands @ flea markets and use the same excuse he does. The simple fact is it's for profit, i.e. bootlegging. I'm sorry but it didn't smell right from the get go, and this selling custom covers w/o even asking puts the whole operation over the top. As I stated before, I hope it gets shut down.
Doom:
--- Quote from: AppleQueso on August 03, 2010, 07:44:01 AM ---look up info on repros and you'll find that many games are in fact much more difficult and more expensive to make than ohers. some use more ROM chips than others, some use special chips, etc. Making these isn't as easy as you might think.
his prices are pretty standard for the service, actually
--- End quote ---
SNES carts need different chips for how big the games are - Final Fantasy "III" was more expensive than other SNES games because it was large.
AQ is right.
AppleQueso:
--- Quote from: Victor Von Doom on August 03, 2010, 11:11:45 AM ---Then why do his prices vary from other repro sellers?
--- End quote ---
Your posts imply you don't have any clue what repros even are, and now you're comparing his pricing to other repro sellers? Pricing varies wildly, yeah, because you're charging for labor (which is reasonable to do, considering this stuff takes a lot of time and isn't easy at ALL), which generally isn't something you can quantify, along with covering the initial startup costs (the cost of an EEPROM writer, for example). Add in the bandwidth costs from the fact that he's selling from his own website and you'll find his prices aren't quite as "scummy" as you'd think.
Is it bootlegging? Well yeah, I thought it was obvious. There's demand for this kind of service because he's providing a way to play these games (which are all either unreleased titles, rom hacks, or translated versions of games that never came to the US) on your actual hardware, something which isn't possible normally. Considering none of the games he's selling are possible to get in physical form anyhow, it'd likely fall into a legal gray area.
PDDestro:
--- Quote from: AppleQueso on August 03, 2010, 02:53:49 PM ---
--- Quote from: Victor Von Doom on August 03, 2010, 11:11:45 AM ---Then why do his prices vary from other repro sellers?
--- End quote ---
Considering none of the games he's selling are possible to get in physical form anyhow, it'd likely fall into a legal gray area.
--- End quote ---
Now who's being clueless? You keep wanting to dance around the issue, but there is no legal gray area there AT ALL. None of what he's doing falls under fair use, and it absolutely does NOT matter that these hacked or translated roms are not found in cart form beforehand. His 'work' does not make it gray, in fact because he charges for said 'work' he is clearly making things worse for himself w/ the real possibility of criminal charges as defined in Chapter 5, Section 6 of the Copyright Law of the U.S.
§ 506. Criminal offenses
(a) Criminal Infringement. —
(1) In general. — Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed —
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain;
Also, I hope he realizes he could get slapped with trafficking in counterfeit goods or services:
18 U.S.C. § 2320
§ 2320. Trafficking in counterfeit goods or services
(a) Whoever intentionally traffics or attempts to traffic in goods or services and knowingly uses a counterfeit mark on or in connection with such goods or services shall, if an individual, be fined not more than $2,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both, and, if a person other than an individual, be fined not more than $5,000,000. In the case of an offense by a person under this section that occurs after that person is convicted of another offense under this section, the person convicted, if an individual, shall be fined not more than $5,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and if other than an individual, shall be fined not more than $15,000,000.
Also, do you realize just how easy it is to report all of this activity to the authorities and copyright holders?
And if you think small time crooks don't get caught just read the latest press releases and realize the frequency with which charges are brought all the time. And, if you are paying for any of this stuff realize that if he's caught your payment information may be acquired by the authorities. Do you really want to get mixed up in all that?
Ultimately, he's a bootlegger as you said yourself, that makes him ipso facto a scumbag in my book.
AppleQueso:
So are the folks who have made custom cart labels and box arts designed to be used for repros such as these "scumbags" by association? What about folks such as Shenske, who's expressed interest in having a reproduction cart made of Star Fox 2. Is he a scumbag as well for facilitating these people?
Yeah, it's illegal, so is what we do on this site. I don't see you threatening to report us though.