Why are a lot of forums still super-touchy about providing sources to download games?

[SolidSonicTH]

Someone has to say it.

Like we are talking about 20+ year old consoles here. Is there REALLY any harm in providing locations where to get games anymore? Seriously? You want to protect the interest of your hobby you might as well be as accommodating as possible.

It's like a relic of an age gone by.

[mazonemayu]

Because it’s illegal

Neanderthal bones are also a relic of an age gone by, but what do you think they do with you if you steal some?

[SolidSonicTH]

I might be more understanding if they weren't trying to bring undue attention to themselves by allowing people to share downloads (although I don't think some small forum is going to dredge up any attention) but the real annoyance comes from how they tend to be more about some kind of moral responsibility to not share download links. Really?

[Retro-45]

And they don’t want the lawyers on there rear and ruin the community, look at Nintendo for example and how ruthless they can be. And you don’t want the home page full of “where’s game x to download ?” This community is more of a hub for everything dreamcast: homebrew, online play, technical discusses, and just hanging out in general. We just happen to have a download section. Just look at the roms and those kind of subreddits. We don”t want it turned into that.

Thats just my 2 cents

[Roareye]

I might be more understanding if they weren't trying to bring undue attention to themselves by allowing people to share downloads (although I don't think some small forum is going to dredge up any attention) but the real annoyance comes from how they tend to be more about some kind of moral responsibility to not share download links. Really?

With what little respect or care these retro games are often given by their copyright holders, downloading ROMs is a preservation of art.

However you also need to be aware that, while you may hold that view too, legally we have no rights to share game ROMs. And while you might think a big company like Sega would care little for our relatively small community - believe me, they will care if we become a ROM sharing hotbed. They have a dedicated legal department, who have nothing but time to waste suing our forum into the floor. Will they realistically get any money from that? No. But it could (and likely would) destroy this community.

We actually get away with quite a bit here, let's not get overzealous and ruin what we have for the sake of ROMs that are actually easily accessible elsewhere.

[WedgeStratos]

Also remember that just because the Dreamcast, and its games are 20 years old, that doesn't mean the companies behind them have stopped keeping up with those IPs. In fact, we've seen a good number of HD remasters of games from this generation, including from Sega themselves.

And regardless, in some nations, piracy in any capacity, be it downloading it or even the act of backing your game up for your own sake, is illegal.

I personally believe that format shifting is perfectly valid, but my beliefs hold no value to the government. Regardless, if a game I have on my GDemu is available on Steam, or GOG, or Xbox or whatever, I'll pull my card out and pay the money, knowing it's gone to the rightsholders in some way. I have no qualms doing that. Pay for your games when you can, no matter how old.

[SolidSonicTH]

Actually I'm pretty sure this site isn't as stringent as some of the other communities I've ventured to.

[DCGX]

What did I miss?

[fraggle200]

There's an argument that as soon as you know about the internet archive or the roms subreddit. most of the questions about sourcing roms evaporate but I'm right behind everyone trying to maintain a community and if that means links are discouraged, then so be it. I'm big enough and old enough to use google myself. Gone are the days of undergroundgamer and even pleasuredome where you can just get a nice torrent for what you need but it's not too hard if anyone spends about 10 mins of actually looking for what they want.

[SolidSonicTH]

However you also need to be aware that, while you may hold that view too, legally we have no rights to share game ROMs. And while you might think a big company like Sega would care little for our relatively small community - believe me, they will care if we become a ROM sharing hotbed. They have a dedicated legal department, who have nothing but time to waste suing our forum into the floor. Will they realistically get any money from that? No. But it could (and likely would) destroy this community.

While that is true, presumably the forum isn't hosting the content either. The users are just exchanging where to find a specific game if someone casually were to ask.

Again, as I see it the intent is more to keep people interested in the platform at a time where new copies can't be had and used copies are at the whim of an ever-changing market. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to expose people to new and interesting games.

Plus my copy of Street Fighter Alpha 3 seems to have disc-rotted so I can't get it to be consistently playable anymore.