I could easily point to items that are not in the public domain because public domain almost no longer exists.

But assuming you did block and remove all 'pirated' copies the book is out of print and the publisher and writer isn't giong to make any more money no matter how many times it is resold. (Effectively a Gamestop but with better credit)

But all media in question, are unlikely to be on an archive if they are immediately new and instead are older items. Afterall i'm sure you can find plenty of 'Pirated' copies of Windows 3.11, and we know Microsoft holds a copyright on it; But is that really something they care about, or care to enforce? How many systems still use 16bit windows? Probably a few, some ATM and older teller machines may use that type of software but it's rare.

Although i have heard of authors putting their works in the public domain when the printing is done, and the printing group refuses to let them intending to hold on to their temporary rights as long as possible even if it does nothing for them. Quite annoying.

Blaming pirates for scammer-publishers taking your money and then running away without supporting the product they sold? What has this world come to.

ITT: Some people don't realize that the public domain functions differently from country to country, legally complicating things even further.

Though personally I wouldn't follow the United States Public Domain example for anything.

And how is this shocking news?
There are probably thousands of games there, and very few are public domain or legally freeware.

In other words, almost any game you find on archive.org is pirated, sometimes they are not even copies of original games, but copies of cracked games, which makes it all the more obvious.

Funny you should post about this, I just coincidentally found some cracked games there today. Older games, but illegal anyway.


I don't know how archive.org operates with takedown requests, but it has happened.

For instance, they took down the collection of Omni magazines that someone had uploaded there. The page now has a link to a legal source. The ironic part is, of course, that the legal source doesn't seem to be available anymore...

http://archive.org/details/omni-magazine

Hi!

It seems to me that the topic of conversation has strayed a little.

But a distinction must be made between piracy (hard and pure) and the publication of intellectual material (abandoned by its publisher or promoter) for preservation in an electronic medium in the future. Also, it must be conceptually clear that piracy is one thing (as a simple social practice that is against the law) and quite another is the figure of public property (as a practice that seeks to give greater access to information for all through culture and education). They are two completely different and incompatible things (like water and oil). Therefore, it is one thing to preserve for the future ''something'' for the next generations and another to upload copyrighted material that is still being marketed to the public. Now the point is that this does not only affect the publisher or the developer. It also affects GOG and us who pay for the video games marketed here.

At the end of the day we not only buy a product (the video game) but we also acquire a service (the support and update service) that over time will allow us to continue playing and enjoying our video games. That's what I'm talking about. It's not about attacking the developer or the publisher. Nor is it about attacking the person behind the piracy. It is about piracy as an activity that attempts against the community and the users who buy a product and hire a support service for that product (the video game).

If it weren't for copyright laws, anyone could spin up a new service that listens to the community way more than GOG does.

If it weren't for copyright laws, services could actually focus on serving the users instead of wasting their resources in the fight to obtain licenses (and then sell a crippled game that nobody is allowed to patch).

If it weren't for copyright laws, we'd have much more competition as far as DRM-free stores go. Some of them could actually stand behind their principles.

What.cd was possibly the best music service on planet earth.

Archive.org is kind of a borderline website. It's been the only place where I could find old forgotten Japanese ROMs. They host old pc magazines scans, which is good. Without crediting the people responsable for the projects of collecting and scanning them, which is bad. But to host new GOG games currently sold? I think that the upload is due to a third party, like you would see for a YouTube upload a of music track. And that if GOG asks the games would be removed. Also, we can acklowledge that those games are available elsewhere, the source being GOG or Steam it does little difference. Who will use them as a trial demo will buy if they have enjoyed them, who will never buy them will find them elsewhere. It's not really big deal. Just ignore them if you are not interested.
I support the sharing of GOG games that are not on sale anymore. For example, if Death Gate comes back tomorrow I'd insta buy it, but the right holders are not leaving people any purchase option. Same for Shannara and Companions of Xanth. I agree that the games in your list are not appropriate for a site that wants to be an "archive". I think it should only host stuff that is not for sale anymore.

But that's bad because it's illegal!!!! they should buy the game on GOG, play it, and then refund it because that's legal!!

Yes, I'm saying that people will do it anyway. We know it's illegal. You can get angry about it, it's your hair that's turning prematurely white.

they have gone now but the user is still there.

I think this the best solution to such situations. Don't advertise the location, instead contact the the owner of the site hosting the illegal materials, or the rightful copyright owner of the materials, and express your concerns. As can be seen, the situation will be dealt with, by one or the other.

The message from tinybuild is quite ancient and in the meantime after several complaints from users about unpatched gamnes they completely reversed their stand and updated at least almost every game to the newest version. I am not sure if there is still one missing, but imo one can make a mistake as long as one is willing to correct it and they did exactly this. I am also pretty sure that they apologized (need to search for the thread ihn which this was discussed) so not giving them any support anymore might give them the wrong impression about their latest reactions.

You can find pretty much any GOG game on pretty much any torrent site (speaking from prior experience). One more really does not make a difference.

That being said, the copyright law should really be modified to fit the current world, especially after stuff like the recent DMCA fiasco on Twitch. Label companies shutting down streamers for playing a few seconds of music is borderline ridiculous.

I really doubt that GOG would even try to do anything to prevent piracy. They know that you can't prevent this and there are several interviews with GOG in which they stated such a thing. Games will always be pirated so the solution is not to add DRM to prevent piracy but to make people WANT to pay for their games and support GOG and the developers. Most of those who'd use piracy sites on a regular basis would not pay for the game anyway if they had to ... and others would never pirate a game because they want to support DRM-free ... that is the whole idea. It is about trust only. You can shut down 10-20 piracy sites and you can be sure that not long after they will be back ... and more.