[wplug] Emulators

[Zachary Uram]

There is just no incentive to rewrite these classic arcade games.
Maybe a few would get done, but most would languish. I think the
standard 70 year or whatever period for IP is to long in the case of
software. Most of the games I play on MAME were written 20-30 years
ago. The companies that own the UP either went out of business long
ago or are now much bigger companies who are making no money off of
them, and have no way to do so. I think it's better to have the games
survive in the emulator community where a new generation can enjoy
them as well as the old than for the games to just lie dormant on
rusting circuit boards soon to be lost forever. Also if one could
prove IP infringement on such games what type of settlement do they
expect to get? The company is not being robbed of any revenue since
the games have long since stopped being sold, what is the current
realistic value of such a game? That's why you won't see any MAME
users being sued. There's no money to be had. And the technology used
to crack and disseminate media in general is now so advanced even the
behemoth corporation's best efforts are quickly thwarted so all they
can resort to is fear and intimidation with ludicrous lawsuits (like
in several cases where RIAA argued they lost $20,000 for a user
illegally downloading a single song!) and suing random people. I think
it will take a while for IP issues to final settle down with respect
to media and hopefully the corporations will realize file sharing
actually generates more revenue for companies than they lose. When
people check out a song or movie and like it they will go and buy it
often. I think it would be fair to charge a flat monthly media access
fee, like pay $20/month and have unlimited downloads of TV shows,
games, movies, music. Also the pricing models using are about 20-30
years behind the law in terms of tort actions. Thanks to technology
and digital distribution it is just not accurate the amount of money
the RIAA/MPAA claim they are losing.

-- 
Zach
http://www.fidei.org