Dutch Pc Magazine 7/8

Champion (467)

10-07-2003, 13:02

The dutch magazine 7/8 contains 2 cd's. On one of those cd's. YOu can find paramsx including some system roms. On the other you can find above 100 rom-images of MSX game.

Now ofcourse they didn't had the rigths for this. Funny thing is that they actually say that the disc's are copyrighted.
Even more funny is it that with the pc games they carefully selected shareware versions.
While they put the real thing for the emulated games. (Arcade, MSX,Zx-spectrum and C64)
Now I wonder should we be so nice to actually let M$ or the MSX assosciation now what has happened ? Since we can't loose on this one.
1 If we let them know and no actions are taken then we would know that we can easily distrubte everything
2 If the MSX assosciation will take actions then they might earn some money which could be used for things like 1 chip MSX. At least if they really are wiling to make it.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

10-07-2003, 13:10

Most of the time it doesn't feel good to do these kinds of things. Maybe it would be a smart thing to contact PC Magazine first, to see how they arranged things. However, what strikes me is that this seems like quite an arrogant action. I think they didn't even ask the developer of paraMSX for permission. The MRC could play a role in this one, as a foundation and contact of the MSX Association. I'll get me a PC Magazine first, to see what's actually on it.

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

10-07-2003, 13:13

Never heard of that magazine (got url?). I don't like reporting people in, btw. So I wouldn't do it. But that's just my opinion. Afterall, they prolly got some dude working there who's responsible for the data on the cd's. If 7/8 would get into trouble because of this, who's going to feed that guys kids once he got fired?

But on the other hand, it's a company and they should have known that most MSX titles are not freeware at all...

By snout

Ascended (15187)

10-07-2003, 13:16

That's my point. It shouldn't be about the reporting, it should be about letting that PC Magazine know MSX is far from abandonware. I'd like to know the story behind it and perhaps something good can come out of it.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

10-07-2003, 13:17

http://www.pcmag.nl/pcmagazine.cfm

'More than 500 classic arcade games'

I think they don't even know MSX isn't an arcade machine. Funny, I was just talking about that with GuyveR yesterday.

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

10-07-2003, 13:20

I think they should be contacted. To ask them if they even know that what they did is highly illegal. Just see what their reaction is. If they're responding in a bad way not taking any blame, then there's always the possibility of informing the association.

But I think they'll be surprised to hear that they just published copyrighted stuff

By snout

Ascended (15187)

10-07-2003, 13:28

Well, Robert Wilting's initial post quite states they already knew that. However, I will get myself the magazine, look into the software published and possibly there's an article about it too.

I suggest we - the MRC Foundation - contact the PC Magazine based on the information we found, and wait taking further steps until we have an answer.

By robertwilting

Champion (467)

10-07-2003, 13:34

I don't know if they did know about the copyrights point is. That they took it in account for all the old pc-shit. And they didn't do it for arcades and the old systems. At least I think it's well known in the computer bussiness that Konami cares much about there copyrights. And what do we find under MSX and arcade roms. Yes a lot of Konami's.

Point is that they might screwed up because they didn't know. But fact is that it looks like the even did nothing to actually know what's going on. (Based on the Konami material)

By Sander

Founder (1868)

10-07-2003, 13:53

pc magazine is a brand of ZDnet, one of the largest pc magazine publishers in the US.
I think we should tell this to the msx association. But please let them decide what to do. I don´t think it´s a good idea to make contact with this magazine first. Please tell the msx association first, and then let them decide what to do and if we should play any role in this legal matter.

Looking at how things are at the moment, it is not our business. And please note that any initial talks with this magazine could give the magazine the impression that the things we say may be those of the MSX association, which isn´t true.

If you notice a bee-hive in your friends garden, please notify him first. Don´t stick your hand in right away.

By Latok

msx guru (3867)

10-07-2003, 14:15

It's MSX news. So it's worth a newspost. /me is going to buy PCM this afternoon as well...

By snout

Ascended (15187)

10-07-2003, 14:18

I just went out and bought it (did magazines always cost close to 9 euro's?). Going to have a look to the CD-ROM soon. In the magazine, you can find the following sentence:

'Game computers like the ZX Spectrum, MSX and Commodore 64 may have disappeared silently from the market during the early nineties, the classic games are still alive!'

Too bad they didn't even notice the difference between homecomputers and game consoles.