Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

gog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#11

Post by ndiddy »

greatgib wrote: post #9
freedomben wrote: post #7

Emphasis added: > The GOG Preservation Program is our ongoing effort to save classic games from being lost to time. That means working to secure rights , fixing compatibility so they run hassle-free on modern systems, and even rebuilding missing features so the experience is the best you can get, while staying true to the original. It still baffles me how the "rights" to a game (or any IP) can be a thing when the com…

Basically it is the problem with GOG also, I think that if you do nothing the game is Abandonware and I don't think that anyone can go after you to use it pirated or whatever, and even distribute it. Maybe it is shady, but something like that if there is no commercial activity and the IP violation is not enforced for some many times, it can be considered that you are responsible for this and there was no legal way fo…

"Abandonware" is not a legal concept. It's basically shorthand for selective IP enforcement. Essentially, it's saying that if you're illegally distributing a game or piece of software that the original publisher is no longer selling, it's probably fine and they probably won't go after you due to legal action being expensive for something that has little to no impact on the publisher's revenue.

> if there is no commercial activity and the IP violation is not enforced for some many times, it can be considered that you are responsible for this and there was no legal way for the user to be able to use the software.

That's somewhat true for trademarks. If you don't consistently enforce a trademark, then the person you're suing for trademark violation can use that as an argument in court. However, it's not true for copyright (such as someone illegally distributing a game you own).

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#12

Post by burnt-resistor »

freedomben wrote: post #7

Emphasis added: > The GOG Preservation Program is our ongoing effort to save classic games from being lost to time. That means working to secure rights , fixing compatibility so they run hassle-free on modern systems, and even rebuilding missing features so the experience is the best you can get, while staying true to the original. It still baffles me how the "rights" to a game (or any IP) can be a thing when the com…

Why? IP including copyright and trademarks are assets that can be licensed and/or bought/sold. How hard is that to grasp?

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#13

Post by jadedtuna »

qwertfisch wrote: post #10
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #8

> Why introduce a membership now? Is GOG in financial trouble? Glad they put this into the FAQ, because that was certainly my first thought, although I'm not sure the answer really assuages my concerns. You have to admit that the combination of "Original founder buys back GOG from CD Projekt" and then "GOG introduces patron tier" soon thereafter does suggest a company in some financial hardship.

The patron program was introduced weeks (or even months) before the buyout of GOG.

To be fair, a buyout is probably not discussed & agreed upon in a matter of days. Probably.

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#15

Post by qwertfisch »

master-lincoln wrote: post #6
freehorse wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Good Old Piracy" does not (always) help much with incompatibilities arising from running on new machines/OSes.

For those old games emulators do the job

Yes, very old DOS-based games from before 2000 can be emulated perfectly. If you have a modern computer, even the later SVGA 3D games running in protected mode are no problem (using 100–200k cycles/ms in DOSBox).

In fact, today’s graphic possibilities and available monitor resolutions make it possible to accurately and aesthetically simulate an analog CRT monitor with its scanlines and aspect correction (DOSBox Staging). But of course you can just use big sharp pixels.

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#16

Post by qwertfisch »

jadedtuna wrote: post #13
qwertfisch wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The patron program was introduced weeks (or even months) before the buyout of GOG.

To be fair, a buyout is probably not discussed & agreed upon in a matter of days. Probably.

Yes, agreed. I’m still wondering where the co-founder got the 25M dollars. Also if he just had separated GOG (and buy his shares) before CDPR going public in 2009, it would have been much cheaper. At that time GOG only was a plattform for good old games.

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#18

Post by rpdillon »

greatgib wrote: post #9
freedomben wrote: post #7

Emphasis added: > The GOG Preservation Program is our ongoing effort to save classic games from being lost to time. That means working to secure rights , fixing compatibility so they run hassle-free on modern systems, and even rebuilding missing features so the experience is the best you can get, while staying true to the original. It still baffles me how the "rights" to a game (or any IP) can be a thing when the com…

Basically it is the problem with GOG also, I think that if you do nothing the game is Abandonware and I don't think that anyone can go after you to use it pirated or whatever, and even distribute it. Maybe it is shady, but something like that if there is no commercial activity and the IP violation is not enforced for some many times, it can be considered that you are responsible for this and there was no legal way fo…

This is a deeply flawed argument. The idea that folks focused on preservation are creating a legal hazard is false. Copyright law does not care whether the "IP is active". What GOG is doing here is an unmitigated good. To be clear, there is no "commercially abandoned" element to copyright, even if there should be.

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#19

Post by qwertfisch »

burnt-resistor wrote: post #12
freedomben wrote: post #7

Emphasis added: > The GOG Preservation Program is our ongoing effort to save classic games from being lost to time. That means working to secure rights , fixing compatibility so they run hassle-free on modern systems, and even rebuilding missing features so the experience is the best you can get, while staying true to the original. It still baffles me how the "rights" to a game (or any IP) can be a thing when the com…

Why? IP including copyright and trademarks are assets that can be licensed and/or bought/sold. How hard is that to grasp?

The problem is not even this. If you knew who has the rights, you could make an offer for selling digital licenses.

It’s often much more difficult getting to know who has what rights. There is the developer, there is one or more previous publishers (can be different per region in the world), there are investors and sponsoring publishers. And then there are sales, mergers and liquidations after bankruptcy. And no-one really knows (or wants others to know) what rights where are.

Re: GOG Patrons- Join gamers keeping classics alive

#20

Post by pjc50 »

freedomben wrote: post #7

Emphasis added: > The GOG Preservation Program is our ongoing effort to save classic games from being lost to time. That means working to secure rights , fixing compatibility so they run hassle-free on modern systems, and even rebuilding missing features so the experience is the best you can get, while staying true to the original. It still baffles me how the "rights" to a game (or any IP) can be a thing when the com…

This is related to "cadastral mapping" in real estate law systems. IP does not have such a map, or indeed any map at all. At best you might find a (no longer obligatory!) copyright notice on it saying who originally owned the rights to something. That doesn't work when the rights get sold.

There's no good way to even ask "who owns this?" for a piece of IP other than the highly inadequate and risky approach of just pirating it and waiting to see who sues you. But even then DMCA provides all sorts of problems with unauthorized groups claiming to be rightsholder representatives.

Post reply on HN