Comments inline. On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 6:42 PM, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote:
[snip] > I don't know what you mean about "assembling the necessary cash for a key > generator" sinse I'm not sure what the negotiation would be, sinse to have > the system actually be of bennifit for the hole community the key generator > would need to be available to everyone perminantly, not just the people who > bought it at the time as was the case with Bsc, and I am not sure what the > negotiations for that sort of discussion would involve. In the real world, when things like this happen that people care about enough, people set up or find a trusted non-profit foundation, get funding for it, buy the resource in question, and let the non-profit give out access. In this case, that's probably overkill, but one possible model would be: 1) audiogames.net decides it's going to try to buy the rights to the program 2) audiogames.net solicits donations and help in buying the program 3) once it's purchased and rights have been acquired, audiogames can do whatever it wants, including give it away for free. It's really that simple, and frankly it's the only fair way if the developer doesn't want to release it. > You are of course correct that the ultimate disposal of anything is up to > the owner, however there are other considderations than merely possession, > indeed this is a principle which capitalism has largely lost but one which > was important at one time, the respect of the seller for their customers. I don't see how the seller is disrespecting its customers by closing up shop or removing a title from its shelves. The people who already bought the product are the customers; they have their product and don't need to worry if it stops being available. The people who didn't buy the product aren't customers, didn't pay for the product, and don't deserve anything. > Considder for example what would happen if you took Alteraeon down now, > burnt all the code and said "nobody ever plays this againn!" You are quite > within your legal rights to do that. It's largely your game and your server > that hosts it, however you'd make a lot of people very unhappy in the > process in denying their desire to play your game. No matter how many people would be unhappy, I'm still under no obligation to keep it up and running. If the people really are -that- unhappy, then they should band together and pay the developer - either to sell the product to a trusted entity to keep it running, or to pay the developer to keep the product active. You can't just declare that the developer has obligations beyond completed sales, unless those obligations are actually included as part of the sale (for example a warranty, or express guarantee of key replacement.) As far as I know, neither AA nor Liam's games have any such post-sale obligation, and it rankles that people think there is when there clearly isn't. Of course, I intend to keep my games up and running for the forseeable future, likely several decades; however, I am doing this because I -like- doing it, not because people would be sad if I stopped. Dennis Towne Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
