Shouldnt Homebrew be Free and Give All Coders Your Thanks?

[wraggster]

Now first off i think all coders do a fantastic job for every homebrew and emulation scene on any console or computer for that matter. Without them and the hackers you wouldnt have a scene and its as simple as that.

What ever the actions they do and the sometimes strange and unfathomable way that certain releases come out we as a site and a scene thank each and every coder for their work.

Remember that Hero Worshipping one coder is really unfair to all the others who made it easy for that coder to release his work in the first place, the scene and the sites who support it, all work together (in a fashion :p) but we are all part of the family and with that in mind shouldnt all homebrew releases be free.

If the person or persons use say devkits or others code to work on their commercial homebrew then shouldnt they get a cut of any profit.

The Dreamcast scene does have commercial homebrew but thats a scene long left to die because of Sega but the PSP is a strong and succesful console and will they be happy to see commercial homebrew ?

We have seen the Bleemcast release on the Dreamcast which gave the Dreamcast an excellent PS1 Emulator but for one game releases, but believe me they made the original game look way better. But Sony used their financial muscle to kill that project dead and so do any coders really want to be sued by Sony if even one PSP gets bricked?

Selling Homebrew even if you made it 100% yourself is a risky adventure.

Whats your thoughts ?

[RedKing14CA]

If a coder spends a heap-load of time brewing up a great game, and wants to make a profit, sony can NOT control HIS product!!!

They should be able to sell their own work...

[LC_killer]

but if codes start selling their products, that will drag down and eventually kill hombrew. alot of people wont, or cant pay for those kind of things. but all coders can set up payapll account and get donations through that. makes more sence.

[pakkman781]

My thanks to all coders for making the PSP such an excellent device! The PSP wouldn't be near as good as it is, without the great homebrew community! Good luck to all of you in all of your future ventures!

I one day hope to be able to contribute to PSP scene too, since there's things I'd like to make on the device that no one else seems to have taken much of an interest in. Alas, I know next to nothing about C, and compilers continue to intimidate me, so who knows if I ever get anything done XD

As for commercial homebrew, I must say that I respect the works that coders do for the community, but don't we have do deal with Sony's blood sucking antics enough? Although I do disagree with commercial homebrew, I say coders should do what they want, but at their own peril, for undoubtedly, they will soon be at the mercy of Sony, because it's not a free world for the little guy anymore...

[RedKing14CA]

I do say, no man (or woman :p) of permanant resdidence in japan should try and sell self-made homebrew at risk of being violently pummeled into the dust by the evil wanna-be-God that is Sony...

but if your an American (Brit, Canadian) Go for it! Your are protected by your country!

maybe your persuasive and would rather receive things freely, but so does everyone, and if a coder puts alot of time into something i think he should be able to make a profit with it. I dont mind paying for homebrew at all, i actually would rather have paid for alot of my homebrew games, rather than receive them freely!

[SkankinMonkey]

It's an authors right to want some compensation for his or her hard work, so I see no problem with commercial homebrew. If it's good enough, and it's well priced, why not drop the guy a few bucks as a way of saying thank you?

[Kloe]

If a homebrew app or game is being sold for profit, I don't see it as homebrew anymore, I just see it as a smalltime Industry release, just like when sony releases something that isn't free. I agree that paypal donations and the like, are the most ideal setups for coders, since people can donate if they choose to, and poeple that can't afford to donate to 20+ coders aren't forced to.

[urherenow]

I say You shouldn't even have started this thread. It's your site, but you intended it to be the best PSP news and homebrew page/forum (not a whining forum full of flamers and trolls) and it IS one of the best...

But why are you TRYING to start more heated discussions? This thread doesn't serve any constructive purpose whatsoever. It won't accomplish anything but make this place look more like the other sites you're competing with.

[Hidavi]

I personally appreciate all homebrew coders.

However, I don't see praising one coder as a totally bad thing. It gives other coders something to shoot for, an incentive, competition. As anyone whose taken an Economics class can tell you, competition between producers is good because it leads to better products.

[CoderX]

Life Lession,
Every thing is free.

The idea is how long you can prevent the above life lession

[brunobelo]

Well, I love the coders. The REAL coders, not the lamers that take an emulation and just change the GUI and release the emu as a "optimized xxxxxxx" or "unofficial xxxxx", as we saw on snes emulator. But the coders rox, really rox.

And, some people have to stop the hype. It annoys me see a news like "quake 2 comming soon!" or "snestyl coming soon". Just release the fscking emulator / game and stop the hype! And, of course, congratulations to all the coders, even the snestyl guys. :-D

Luv'U all! You make my PSP usefull. :-D

[urherenow]

snes was a bad example to use. there actually IS a big difference between the two

[Fanjita]

Ultimately the work belongs to the coder. Sure, they are using tools and other work that others may have given for free - but that was the choice made by those other people.

If you want to give something for free, and require that everything produced with it is free too, then you can always use something like the GPL to insist on that - so I don't think that's an issue, directly.

Fortunately, there's an unwritten code of ethics, and general community spirit, that means that the majority of people do give their stuff away for free. Generally that's because they just did it for fun in the first place, and letting other people use it is a nice bonus.

But what's important is that no-one has a right to demand that it should be free. That's just as stifling to the scene as if the norm was for people to charge for their work. No coder wants to be developing stuff for greedy, grabbing people who just assume it's their right to be worked for, for no reward. A gift is massively devalued, and loses the magic of both giving and receiving, if it is expected as a matter of course.

This is why I personally believe in the donations model. You give a gift to the community freely, with no expectation of reward. And if it's appreciated, then a gift may be given back, also completely freely. Everyone feels good about that (gift-giving is much nicer than fee-paying), and everyone wins.

Remember that some exchange of donations of one sort or another generally really helps to push forward the scene. All of the donations for the EBOOT Loader have gone into buying more hardware (PSPs, memory cards, whatever) so that I can work more efficiently on the project. Without those donations, there's no way I could have justified personal outlay of over $1000 on hardware to support the creation of free homebrew for the community - I just can't afford that.

Bottom line: Be thankful that so many people are generous enough to give you their time and hardwork for free. But don't demand that of them, because they may just stop doing it.

[urherenow]

Bottom line: Be thankful that so many people are generous enough to give you their time and hardwork for free. But don't demand that of them, because they may just stop doing it.


Amen!!