Hombrew being sold on Ebay!

[Darksaviour69]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

this guy is reallying starting to any me, hes selling freeware for £12, and people are buying it!

[Mental2k]

Crap I know what was wrong, I was think feet of fury instead of beats of rage. *Yeah I have beats of rage. I quite enjoyed it. I would download some mods but the main problem is I'm runnin a 56k. Maybe I'll try some of the mods soon.

Has anyone tried telling the buyers its freeware?

[DreamDogg]

I am no lawyer, but I see two legal questions in this BOR marketing/phenomenon/issue:

1. The legality of distributing a game with nonlicensed copyrighted sprites and visual elements.

2. The legality of selling these game discs on eBay.

I think #1 is probably legal and acceptable in many circumstances, or at least the big software companies don't seem to care. The original copyright holders may even be pleased to receive the free advertising (and goodwill) which accompanies this kind of fan-based activity.

However, #2 seems more dubious. The eBay seller who has started selling BOR mods owns neither the original BOR mod, the value-added disc jackets, nor the original SNK/Capcom sprite graphics...

I'm not saying the eBay merchant doesn't add value. He most certainly DOES add value -- by going through the trouble of burning the discs, printing the disc jackets, buying the jewel cases, marketing and selling his product and shipping the finished good. In fact, I do respect his industry. He's filling a market niche. However, the underlying intellectual property is not his own, so his position is questionable.

I think the big lesson here is that there is a market niche for homebrew dreamcast software discs. I encourage everyone to find ways satisfy a market niche if they can imagine a way to do so legally.

[Mental2k]

Its not just illegal its immoral also. Why not post a link that will allow people to know where to download it.

[Darksaviour69]

i have contacted every bider, but the either don't respond or say somethink like e.g.

Thank you for letting me know its a shame i bid on it but the file is very big and i only have a 56k modem but i have a friend who has broadband so i have asked him to download it for me if he can not then my bid is still ok cheers from chris thanks

another thing that annoys me is that it not even his own cover, its someone elses work, he has just downloaded it and printed it!

[Mental2k]

yeah im with them on the 56k modem, thats the reason i would get it, if i did, but then I can always use DAP so i know i can get it eventually, so thats ok. I wonder if he's actually making much profit on it though?

[Mental2k]

has anyone tried emailing him yet?

[Darksaviour69]

I wonder if he's actually making much profit on it though

well let see , cd cost about 20p each, case lets say 50, printing the over and cd label lets say a very expencive £1 so that total cost £1.70 and the sold the last one for £10.50 and looking to sell this one for £12 and p&p is £2.00 - Royal Mail 1st Class Standard (Within United Kingdom) even thought or games i have bought on ebay that has Royal Mail 1st Class Standard at £1.25

so yeah hes making £8-£10 profit per cd, that good!

has anyone tried emailing him yet?

whats the point? he knows what he is doing it wrong, there is nothing we can do because we are no Sony or MS, ebay does not care!

[Mental2k]

Yeah I guess, £8-£10 is excessive.

[Darksaviour69]

he sold BOR for £32!!!!!!! this is getting beyond a joke now >