Neeum Zawan <m.n### [at] ieeeorg> wrote:
>         Oh yes. Think vaporware. Lots and lots of games out there that people 
> cherish and love, but that are protected by copyright and the 
> people/companies who own that copyright aren't bothered to let people 
> play those games legally.

  I think you mean abandonware.

>         I could understand it if those companies were planning on marketing 
> those games, or making remakes, etc. Then those older games would hurt 
> sales. But in almost all cases that's just not how it is. The owners are 
> often megacorps who, as a rule, just maintain the copyright.

  Some companies are indeed real dicks about their copyrights, while other
companies don't care that much, and in fact embrace people's creativity on
top of their product.

  A good example of the latter would be Valve: Rather than being dicks about
people making mods for Half-Life, they actually embraced the best ones.
Counter Strike is the quintessential example: It was one of the most popular
Half-Life mods, and Valve basically bought it, and it became one of their
best-selling products.

  A good example of the former is Square Enix: A group of people had spent
years in a project to create a "sequel" to the game Chrono Trigger by
modding the original. Technically speaking the group didn't even break any
copyright: The only thing they shared in their website was the diff data
necessary to mod the original Chrono Trigger ROM data in order to get the
modified game. In other words, all the data they offered was their own
original creation. However, Square Enix issued a cease&desist order when
the project was something like 98% done. Even though the group knew they
were not breaking any laws, they were too afraid to not to comply. Square
Enix doesn't want to listen to the fans crying for a sequel, and they want
everything the group created removed from the internet.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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