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[A. J. Raffles]

Originally posted by OneHotMama@Aug 11 2005, 03:00 PM
If it's ESA-protected -- does that mean that it's TRULY unavailable?* I mean, is there someone I can call or write to?* It seems such a shame, these were such great games.* The next generation (my daughter's generation) is really missing out.* :-(

Well, it isn't altogether unavailable, you just can't get it for free. You could still try buying the game second-hand, though (although prices can be ridiculously high sometimes). If you have the original disks somewhere and they're not working for some reason, you might try asking the company for a replacement, but in this particular case I don't think your chances would be too high, since Sierra was bought by Vivendi a while back.
You could of course try to write a polite email to Vivendi asking them whether they are still selling the game, but your chances of success would have to be close to nil. They must get flooded every day with emails asking for games they no longer sell.
Sorry.

Edit: If I were you I'd remove that email address. You'll only get spammed to death.

[BLZ]

Originally posted by A. J. Raffles@Jul 15 2005, 07:00 PM
He won't be uploading it. Didn't you read the other posts? This isn't a warez site.

I really wish you would stop calling it warez. Warez usually refers to the pirating of new(er) software, usually cracked in some way.

I really don't see how you can call the posting ofa 15 year old game Warez, thats just completely wrong.

And for that matter, the orignal makers, Sierra, even said they essentially don't care of people download it. They haven't been getting revenue for this game in over a decade.

and, to reply to your other post, YES it can be avialable for free. Just call up Sierra, they sent me 3 original disks (my old ones were dead) for...FREE.

So please let people post it here.

[A. J. Raffles]

Originally posted by BLZ@Sep 19 2005, 04:18 PM
I really wish you would stop calling it warez. Warez usually refers to the pirating of new(er) software, usually cracked in some way.

Well, here our (admittedly somewhat loose) definition of warez is "something which we wouldn't be able to host or link to without seriously upsetting somebody".

I really don't see how you can call the posting ofa 15 year old game Warez, thats just completely wrong.

And for that matter, the orignal makers, Sierra, even said they essentially don't care of people download it. They haven't been getting revenue for this game in over a decade.

WRONG. Sierra (or rather Vivendi Universal, since they bought Sierra several years ago) cares enough to pay a bunch of lawyers (aka the ESA) to enforce their rights to all their games. Basically this means that if they catch you hosting - or even linking - to one of their games without having their permission you are in trouble. In fact, a couple of months ago, Abandonia had to remove quite a few downloads, because the ESA threatened to have the site shut down otherwise. This very game was one of them, so I highly doubt that they "essentially don't care", or they wouldn't be paying the ESA to enforce their rights.

and, to reply to your other post, YES it can be avialable for free. Just call up Sierra, they sent me 3 original disks (my old ones were dead) for...FREE.

Fine. I'll take your word for it. But that still doesn't mean we can host the download.

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by BLZ@Sep 19 2005, 06:18 PM
So please let people post it here.

If we would be permited to host the game - you could have download it here. But we aren't allowed to host the game - so puting links to other sites where you can get it would be really bad!

As for the warez definition - it doesn't matte how old the game is. Would it matter if you stole a brand new Porche, or a 15 year old BMW? Both would still be car tefth - both would still be illegal!

It's very much the same here - so stop compleining about it. We are trying to get permisions needed to get as many of these great old games back on the site, but until we are officially alowed to host these games they are NO GO (Dr. Brain isn't the only one).

I am very happy for you though that you got those games for free from Sierra - that only means there's probably a lot of hope for them to give us permision to host this game again (if they really don't mind).

[BLZ]

First of all, I understand what you both are saying. But the thing is, Sierra (as they are now) doesn't really care about a game so old. Like I said, you can call them up and they will mail you the disks. Maybe now-a-days they'l;l email it, who knows; it was 2 years ago when I asked them for it and it wasn't a problem.

The point is, you can't really buy these games today, so why cut off the only eal way to get them, save ebay.

Let me ask this, how many have actually been sued from hosting games that haven't been sold in stores for over 10 years? Do you really think any company is going to go through the trouble to sue someone over something they don't make money for? I cna understand Vivendi going after people pirating Half-Life 2, but not an 13 year old MS-DOS game. (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen any suits for games/software this old.)

[Sebatianos]

Originally posted by BLZ@Sep 19 2005, 08:21 PM
Let me ask this, how many have actually been sued from hosting games that haven't been sold in stores for over 10 years? Do you really think any company is going to go through the trouble to sue someone over something they don't make money for? I cna understand Vivendi going after people pirating Half-Life 2, but not an 13 year old MS-DOS game. (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen any suits for games/software this old.)

Look - this may be a difficoult concept to understand, but there are people that obey the law because that's the way to go - not because they'd fear the punishment.

That's what a lawful society is. And if it really is that easy to get the game from Sierra - maybe you could simply post the phone number you called and all the people who want the game can call them and get the disks!

[A. J. Raffles]

Originally posted by BLZ@Sep 19 2005, 06:21 PM
Let me ask this, how many have actually been sued from hosting games that haven't been sold in stores for over 10 years? Do you really think any company is going to go through the trouble to sue someone over something they don't make money for? I cna understand Vivendi going after people pirating Half-Life 2, but not an 13 year old MS-DOS game. (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never seen any suits for games/software this old.)

You probably weren't there when it happened, but ESA's threat to have Abandonia shut down for good was very real. I'm sure you're aware that abandonware is a slightly dodgy business, but Abandonia's line has always been to avoid those sort of confrontations. It's Kosta's decusion, obviously, since he's the one who would be held responsible if there was a lawsuit; it might not have affected you and me (apart from the fact that we would have had to find a different site to get our games from), but Kosta as the site owner could very well have had a lawsuit for breach of copyright, or whatever it is, on his hands.
The only reason why ESA won't let everybody who wishes to host those games do so is that they are paid by the companies that own the rights to those games (i.e. Vivendi and a bunch of others). If Vivendi really didn't care about those games at all, surely they wouldn't pay an organisation to protect their copyrights?

[elsa]

I hope I'm allowed to ask this, but I finally got the Island of Dr.Brain of ebay, and I dont' have the "encycloalmanactionatyography" for the coordiantes, and I just can't click on anywhere, Does anybody have those? Please... :tai:

[Sebatianos]

If you're refering to the Copy Protection Codes you need - they are on the main site (look under extras - HERE). k:

[elsa]

no, I don't know what those are for yet, because I can't even get into the game without having the coordinates for the island, it asks for longituted and latitude, and I don't have the manual. I can't click on anywhere like everyone is saying either. Please help--anybody....