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Thread: No more ISOs?

  1. #106
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    Another famous site bites the dust, it was reported today (I am not going to mention its name). But... that isn't the worst part of the story.

    Look at this drivel written by the admins (in bold):

    ******
    Copyright infringement laws vary from country to country, but the premise in a nutshell is that copyright infringement is the cause of monetary loss or damage to the copyright holder. With retro gaming, there are no ways of purchasing the games - let alone the systems to play them on - in a way that would still generate the copyright holders revenue. None whatsoever.
    ******

    Perhaps a better way to put it is that there's always a way to generate revenue, but no interest in investing in them, if there isn't any supreme control involved? This guy must not know that decades ago the movie industry tried to ban the technology itself that allowed recording?

    https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/b...e-betamax.html

    Look at this quote:

    "The decisions had enormous implications for the media economy. The VCR gave way to the DVD player and the digital video recorder. Videotape gave the kiss of life to the low-budget independent film. From “Rip. Mix. Burn.” to YouTube, every step of the evolution of digital media has been affected by that decision."

    And the same can be extended to removing DRM from ebooks purchased in Amazon, or decryption from DVDs, Blu-rays, hacking software, to allow for a backup. Since most of these companies reserve the right to strip the buyers from their copy, whenever they want, or impose ridiculous restrictions, such as area code, or commercials that can't be skipped (some warning against piracy), in the beginning of discs.

    Make no mistake, this isn't about generating revenue for the authors or people involved in the creation of these contents. I mean, users would gladly pay anything for these people.

    The issue here is the "middle-man" retaining a greater share of the profits, the record labels have lost a lot of money when users started promoting themselves and not allowing themselves to be enslaved. Sure, these big corporations do their part, and help to promote these contents. But they want the right to explore these works for over a century. There are movies which should be in public domain, but are still copyrighted thanks to $$$$$$

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s...pyright_issues

    For many reasons millions of works still can't be released to the public. Is this fair? How about I give the finger to any company that wants the right to explore a work for many decades, including games? Or that doesn't matter in this discussion?

    **************
    This is why retro roms have always been a grey area. The distribution of their works, although frowned upon, were never actioned against as in a court of law that is what they would have to prove - Monetary loss or damages. And they couldn't - Because it's simply not true.
    **************
    It's not a grey area. If you aren't generating profit for these companies then you are a pirate and they are going to chase you. It's as simple as that. They think only because they were involved in the distribution, support, etc. of these works they can retain the right to do as it pleases with them, and no one owns anything. When you create a copy you are not stealing anything, when Jesus multiplied the fish, was someone stolen in this process? Artificial scarcity is being utterly destroyed with the multitude of copies spread on the internet. Moreover there's no monetary loss since the people who download the roms wouldn't pay for the official thing anyway, even if all rom sites disappeared.

    I wouldn't pay the money Microsoft asks me for a new Windows, or for anything I think I am entitled to have for free. If the price was fair (compared to others already available), the product was good, I had the guarantee my copy wouldn't be lost in 10, 20 years and the company behind was ethical, then perhaps I would consider buying.

    ***********
    HOWEVER - That stated - Times are changing. There are now growing ways of obtaining these retro titles through avenues which DO benefit the copyright holders and it seems clear due to recent events, that there are a lot more avenues in development.
    ***********

    Wrong. The times aren't changing. This sort of thing has been happening for decades, if not centuries. It isn't something new AT ALL. These big corporations have been using these scare tactics (also sending threatening letters for those who never heard of VPN) for a long, looooooong time. All it takes is one target for all the rest to "run to the hills". I remember back in 2012 when Megaupload was closed many cyberlockers decided to quit.

    And there is no way to obtain anything Emuparadise or you have been offering other than for free. No one should wait until developers impose failed ideas like the SNES-Classic, with a limited number of games and several restrictions, a Netflix streaming service or anything else it doesn't replace this infinite library of games and systems.

    You can only replace the "free alternative" if what you offer is equally good, if not better. For the reasons I explained in the previous posts this isn't something they can do, even if they wanted. For technical reasons and licensing issues.

    **************
    This is why we decided to throw in the towel of our own accord. It was a good ride and it was a just ride, however it is clear that in the not so distant future, distributing retro titles could be a serious case of copyright infringement.
    **************

    Could be? Well, thank you, Captain Obvious. You don't know with whom you are dealing with? All these companies are managed by psychopaths.

    ***********
    That doesn't mean they will get it right though - Chances are they wont. We have ideas on how the archiving of retro titles and the pleasing of the copyright holders should be done and would love to pursue it eventually. We think the webmasters of retro rom sites should come together and work with the copyright holders. It does not have to be this hard - And criminals should not be made out of passionate enthusiasts.
    ***********

    Chances are they will. No one has ever seen a different outcome if there's copyright involved. You'll always have politicians and judges bought and paid off, and from everywhere. I suggest watching that Kim Dotcom documentary, even illegal spying was used against the guy.

    If you didn't hide your tracks and took all the necessary steps to keep your website alive then you might as well quit for good. Create another site, with another name, and try again.

    The Pirate Bay was subjected to all sorts of things and it's still there, 15 years after its inception. There are many reasons why, and one of them was not pandering to the entertainment industry.

    Work with copyright holders? You might as well give freely your soul to the devil. They are the enemy, only care about money, and if it were possible to burn all their old games to increase their fortune they would do it in a second.

    ***********
    Take Spotify for example. Spotify has dominated the music industry and they started with scene release MP3 files. Their affordability, selection and ease of use then pretty much stopped all serious cases of online music piracy. The similarities are astounding. It's time there was a happy medium like Spotify for retro gaming.
    ***********

    I prefer to think about Napster, which I gladly used in the end of 1990's. They were destroyed by record labels and later turned into a paid option, which was a massive failure. Later they made it possible for torrents/P2P to thrive.

    That's why from the demise of Emuparadise and sites like yours I hope we'll have more people interested in preserving these contents, in the right way, of course, with new websites being created, if not by the owners (without letting anyone know) from the people who won't give any support to Nintendo, Sony, etc.

    You can't argue with companies that are only concerned about controlling everyone and increasing their profits, while in the meantime putting innocents in jail, or asking them for more money. They don't give a damn about preservation.

    ***********
    Moving on...

    We would like to explicitly state that we are not re-branding or moving, despite the general consensus.
    There is a new project underway by retro gaming enthusiasts to rebuild our original archive. And we wish them well.

    ***********

    Even if you are don't be stupid to admit it, in public. Let's be smart and do things right.

  2. #107
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    Quote Originally Posted by Perene View Post
    We would like to explicitly state that we are not re-branding or moving, despite the general consensus.
    There is a new project underway by retro gaming enthusiasts to rebuild our original archive. And we wish them well.
    Yeah sure, not rebrandìing. Do you think we are all f**ing stupid?
    That retro site they are promoting openly on your forums that incidentally happens to have EVERY GAME you ever uploaded already on it, is not owned by you? REALLY? Cut the cra** already.
    It's the exact same database, download links, images, descriptions, everything 100% transferred.

    You think you are oh so clever for not admitting it on that bogus statement? HAHAHAHA.
    You got all Nintendo's main franchises right on the home page: Mario, Zelda, the pink thing, they are all in there.

    So just sit tight wait a few months to get popular and be sued.

  3. #108
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    Default Emuparadise has a bridge for sell..

    To anyone thinking that emuparadise is RIP I believe are largely jumping the gun. The owners of this place has ran this site for 18 years, which is older than some people. These individuals have close to every single game release for consoles ever and if they want us to believe that they are just going to up and delete all that history.. "Sure" it's all gone no more left mission failed time to go home *sarcasm*..

    Do I think that they are not going to host anymore on Emu? Yea, I can believe that. Do I think that they will ever host again? Well that is debatable.. Do I think that they would delete all of the games ever made? Nah, that would be insane. I won't believe that for one second, I trust their decisions though. They have been good stewards with games thus far, I don't think they will intend to stop now. Because if I know one thing, when you have a passion for something you don't just up and erase it. If anyone thinks that EMU has done that, well they probably have a bridge to sell you.

    This is the internet nothing dies it simply moves..

  4. #109
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    Will you stop taking money from people's accounts, now ?
    I mean, no downloads, no money.
    I last paid you in April, so the 6 month time limit is coming up. I will be watching this closely, and hope you don't take anything or I will be forced to go to Paypal.
    This isn't a threat. But fairs fair, you don't provide any downloads, I don't provide any money.

  5. #110
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    Quote Originally Posted by John_RM_72 View Post
    Will you stop taking money from people's accounts, now ?
    I mean, no downloads, no money.
    I last paid you in April, so the 6 month time limit is coming up. I will be watching this closely, and hope you don't take anything or I will be forced to go to Paypal.
    This isn't a threat. But fairs fair, you don't provide any downloads, I don't provide any money.
    You are complaining for something that didn't even happen? Give them a break lol.
    I'm sure you can go to your paypal and cancel pre-approved payments.
    Or from the site you used to subscribe.

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    There are still some downloads.

    Spoiler warning:

  7. #112
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    Quote Originally Posted by epfan View Post
    You are complaining for something that didn't even happen? Give them a break lol.
    I'm sure you can go to your paypal and cancel pre-approved payments.
    Or from the site you used to subscribe.
    WTF are you talking about ? They have taken down all downloads, so it did happen.

    I'm talking about being a paid member of EmuParadise, paid because I wanted faster downloads, and more than one at a time. I've been paid for a few years.
    Why would you pay them for nothing ?

    There are still some downloads.
    Some. That hardly justifies paying for a "Premium" service for "Some".
    Anyway, I will email support, and cancel.

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    Quote Originally Posted by John_RM_72 View Post
    WTF are you talking about ? They have taken down all downloads, so it did happen.

    I'm talking about being a paid member of EmuParadise, paid because I wanted faster downloads, and more than one at a time. I've been paid for a few years.
    Why would you pay them for nothing ?



    Some. That hardly justifies paying for a "Premium" service for "Some".
    Anyway, I will email support, and cancel.
    I can't see any evidence of you being a member of the community. You paid for better speeds/more slots and that's all.
    You come in here posting about something that you can deal with yourself, but seem to want to make a huge issue out of it as if it's the site's fault that downloads needed to be removed.

    Subscription renewal exists for many types of services and has done for a long time. Do you always need to kick up a stink about it or only now?

    Spoiler warning:

  9. #114
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    Quote Originally Posted by epfan View Post
    Yeah sure, not rebrandìing. Do you think we are all f**ing stupid?
    That retro site they are promoting openly on your forums that incidentally happens to have EVERY GAME you ever uploaded already on it, is not owned by you? REALLY? Cut the cra** already.
    It's the exact same database, download links, images, descriptions, everything 100% transferred.

    You think you are oh so clever for not admitting it on that bogus statement? HAHAHAHA.
    You got all Nintendo's main franchises right on the home page: Mario, Zelda, the pink thing, they are all in there.

    So just sit tight wait a few months to get popular and be sued.
    You know what's more sad when all of this happens? It's the fact most people think that we are not paying for services/products because we want them for free, and this is it. In other words we are judged by their own standards.

    When you read reports like this every single day:

    ************
    Prenda Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Pirate Bay Honeypot Case

    Paul Hansmeier, one of the lead attorneys behind the controversial law firm Prenda, has pleaded guilty to mail, wire fraud, and money laundering. The Pirate Bay provided important evidence in the case, where Hansmeier and his colleague were found creating and uploading porn movies to file-sharing sites to extract settlements from alleged pirates.

    Over the past several years, so-called copyright trolls have been accused of various dubious schemes and actions, with one group as the frontrunner.

    The now-defunct Prenda Law grabbed dozens of headlines, mostly surrounding negative court rulings over identity theft, misrepresentation and even deception.

    Most controversial was the shocking revelation that Prenda uploaded their own torrents to The Pirate Bay, creating a honeypot for the people they later sued over pirated downloads.

    The accusation was first published here on TorrentFreak. While some disregarded it as a wild conspiracy theory, the US Department of Justice took it rather seriously. These and other allegations ultimately resulted in a criminal indictment, which was filed in 2016.

    The US Government accused two of the leading Prenda lawyers of various crimes, including money laundering, perjury, mail and wire fraud. This week one of the defendants, Paul Hansmeier, pleaded guilty to two of the counts.

    (...)

    After extracting IP-addresses of account holders who allegedly shared the files Prenda created and uploaded, they asked courts for subpoenas to obtain the personal info of their targets from ISPs. This contact information was then used to coerce victims to pay settlements of thousands of dollars.

    Prenda Law went to great lengths to hide its direct involvement in the uploading of the material as well as its personal stake in the lawsuits and settlements, according to the plea agreement.

    ************

    You learn that all these companies never cared about the users, only about staying in business no matter what. It doesn't matter for them if lives are destroyed, if games/movies are lost.

    All it matters for Nintendo and others is that they don't lose any control over what they think they own. That's why copyright laws are a joke and if you break DRM and create a private copy you can be sued and sent to jail, in theory.

    You only need to read the news about all corruption, all dirty (and illegal) tactics from these people and their goons (politicians and judges, that are in their pockets), all the sick laws they create (never with any consent from the voters)...

    For you to never want to support them again.

    That's exactly what I did. I sold (and I am still selling) my DVDs, books, and already sold all my games.

    Not because I wanted money, the reason is that I can have these contents in my computer. Sure, physical media is different and sometimes you benefit of having both, or you can't replace every physical media for digital files. My point is that I decided not to continue buying for more than this benefit, I took a moral stance.

    And that's what I think everyone reading me should do, besides preserving these contents. Let the beast starve.
    Last edited by Perene; 19th-August-2018 at 01:48.

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    Quote Originally Posted by deadlegion View Post
    I can't see any evidence of you being a member of the community. You paid for better speeds/more slots and that's all.
    You come in here posting about something that you can deal with yourself, but seem to want to make a huge issue out of it as if it's the site's fault that downloads needed to be removed.

    Subscription renewal exists for many types of services and has done for a long time. Do you always need to kick up a stink about it or only now?
    A huge issue ? Two fucking posts ? Jesus fucking christ. You want a huge issue, look on the internet, it's fucking everywhere. This topic on forums, youtube, gaming websites, tech websites.
    I'm not the one who stupidly removed ALL roms just because some scumbag company made a noise.
    Remove nintendo roms, then deal with others IF they then start to sniff around. Don't nuke a whole section just because a small portion of the site might cause issues. Fucking hell.

    Perhaps if you pulled your fucking head out of your fucking ass, then you might see the fucking huge noise this has created across the net. Already, there are a couple more sites now following EP's lead. Where is this going to end ?

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    Quote Originally Posted by John_RM_72 View Post
    A huge issue ? Two fucking posts ? Jesus fucking christ. You want a huge issue, look on the internet, it's fucking everywhere. This topic on forums, youtube, gaming websites, tech websites.
    I'm not the one who stupidly removed ALL roms just because some scumbag company made a noise.
    Remove nintendo roms, then deal with others IF they then start to sniff around. Don't nuke a whole section just because a small portion of the site might cause issues. Fucking hell.

    Perhaps if you pulled your fucking head out of your fucking ass, then you might see the fucking huge noise this has created across the net. Already, there are a couple more sites now following EP's lead. Where is this going to end ?
    You do realise before downloads were removed here a well known site was hit with serious legal action without any warning at all.
    Plenty of games and not just ninty IP have been removed from here including forums shares due to DMCA over the years. There has been plenty of sniffing around already.
    Do you think a site that has been around longer than wikipedia would just remove downloads if there wasn't a potentially serious and real threat?

    How about you setup your own site and share all those games you've downloaded. See how long you can stay out of trouble.

    Spoiler warning:

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    I think Nintendo and the other copyright holders should learn from the music industry and realize if they released their backlog of titles with no DRM for a reasonable price, the "black-market" for ROMs would be drastically reduced. I suppose concerns over quality control and support for the various emulators partially hold them back. I don't think their "virtual consoles" or "classic editions" are much of an option. They are over-priced and offer only a small percentage of their old games. They also don't offer the advanced features of the good emulators (save states, higher resolutions, wide-screen hacks, etc). Plus, just like DRM-free MP3s, I want the ability to play them on multiple devices. Side note, I'm interested to see how well the Galaxy Note 9 will handle the Dolphin emulator...

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    ISO Zone, are gone.

    Seriously. don't say this is nothing, or of no consequence. This is spreading across the top rom sites.

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    Quote Originally Posted by John_RM_72 View Post
    ISO Zone, are gone.

    Seriously. don't say this is nothing, or of no consequence. This is spreading across the top rom sites.
    They aren't gone. They removed their downloads and now a new download site has appeared offering the same sort of content.

    Spoiler warning:

  15. #120
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    Quote Originally Posted by John_RM_72 View Post
    ISO Zone, are gone.

    Seriously. don't say this is nothing, or of no consequence. This is spreading across the top rom sites.
    I figured ISOZone would be next, dang it! There's a few other ROM sites that are still around, but I don't know how much longer they have before they're discovered, or they find out about Nintendo's rampage. I'm assuming, the problem now, is that more sites that are shut down, the more traffic the ones that are still up will get, and that will draw attention and then those sites will shut down, too.

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We are the oldest retro gaming forum on the internet. The goal of our community is the complete preservation of all retro video games. Started in 2001 as EmuParadise Forums, our community has grown over the past 18 years into one of the biggest gaming platforms on the internet.

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