As much as I can agree with the fact that companies can take down both pirates and romhackers, I think it is also fair to consider that RHDN has been up for almost 20 years, without any real takedown, which is impressive considering the huge number of hacks hosted there, while big ROM sharing websites such as EmuParadise, Vimm’s Lair, LoveROMS, LoveRetro.co (and we could keep going with the list), did not face the same luck. So, although law-wise there is no difference, in practice I believe there is a substantial difference which we cannot ignore so easily.
Yeah, I was thinking of some kind of simple permission option where people can choose not to have their stuff distributed without agreement. I hope that Spike chooses to stick around, in any case. I can see the pressure involved, but we all appreciate the great work he put into building an alternative ROM hacking site. Luckily, BenjaminCM was a good addition to the team and would do his best to keep things going. Best wishes, Spike. Mull it over before making any final decisions.
Fuck that. Just do a news post or forum post where people that are upset about their stuff being prepatched can go to list what they like removed from cdr. Make a point to let them all know explicitly that nothing from here ends up over there without permission in the first place, or going forward. Lastly just let them all know it'll take a bit of time to get sorted out since you weren't expecting to randomly become basically the only general hacking site out of left field. 99.99% of people would end up cooling down and likely respect your openness in like two weeks tops. And at that point, the other .01% that want to just start drama regardless of what you do can go straight back to the RHDN boards that they just slowly burnt to the ground for the past eight years. They won't be hard to spot; they all sound like the rich couple from Gilligan's Island with the way they word their posts. Either way digging the site (well, outside of the imitation reddit upvote/downvote thing, seems borderline pointless on a romhacking site but that's just my personal opinion). Wish you the best man.
Sucks that your involvement has to end this way but if this is how you feel I understand. What you have done for us cant be taken away. There are a lot of us out there that would consider you a part of the group so don't forget that. Wish you all the best in whatever you choose to do afterwards.
There are people who use this site just because of you, Spike. Not the best move to leave but it's your decision in the end.
I don’t think you leaving is going to put RHDO in a better situation. Other things can be done with you still staying here. If I were you I would think about this before you start transferring the site over to someone else. You’re more than welcome to directly message me if you want to.
Spike, without you we would have nothing at this point. Thank you so much for this home, and you'll always be in our hearts for what you did for us.
I've been a lurker on CDRomance for years and years, I personally would say, it is one of the best rom-sharing sites. The speeds are great when I need to back up my stuff and, through CDRs, I've found great hidden gems.It is a shame that a archival site has drama, because we can't have nice things in this mudrock.
Rock on. \ m/
While it is a shame to see the prior website go down in flames. I'm glad you kept on and continued the archive. Thank you.
Thank you!
Thanks man.
I removed it.
I checked and you're right, they published a translation of mine without asking me, too. I don't support pre-patched ROMs in the first place, and surely I don't want to be associated with a website which does publish them.
I had to make a comment about this issue. The text is long because it’s a serious matter I had thought about in the past. I see some people trying to fake moral superiority under the guise of "legality" in this issue, saying, amidst this drama, that romhacking shouldn't be associated with the CDR site, basically, because of copyright - presuming that a romhack dev isn't, under the eyes of corporations, the same as a pirate. People need to understand that having a copy of a software does not give the user, in any shape or form, permission to modify the program any way, and even less, to distribute those modifications. Romhacking also violates copyright. There is no "gray" area here. If the IP owner ~wants~, it will take the site down, and pursue legal action. It doesn't matter if it is because of piracy, or because of hacking. In the eyes of the law, it's basically the same - the only real question is if the violation of intellectual property had a commercial end or not. The owners of companies like nintendo do not make the games available, let people on the internet maintain interest in their IP exactly by way of "warez" sites, romhacking, and emulation, and years later, they take these people down, with extreme prejudice. People like us, that cannot defend themselves, because they are not rich like the company’s upper echelons that make these decisions, and hire the (also rich) lawyers to act against us, using the (also rich) members of the courts and their lakeys (government employees, police, etc.). They act against piracy more aggressively under the justification that such practices actively harm the profits that they extract out of the products - as if a person that acquires a software through illegal means would buy it, only if it wasn’t for the pirates and their practices. But do not be mistaken, modifying a program without express permission is, also, illegal. Think, for example, about the cracking scene. So the animosity between the romhacking folks and the "warez" folks, if based on these grounds of legality, makes absolutely no sense.
- That said, given the analysis above, now, this here is my personal opinion:
You can do whatever you want with anything I upload here, past and future.
Then there is a lot of misinformation going around. Many, many romhackers dispised RHDN for the way they treated romhackers. Passion comes out in blunt ways. However, I had nothing to do with any "attacks" on rhdn besides from verbally. Please watch this short video that clears up any confusion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYbtcsG8tUI If you knew anything about me, you'd know I'm a passionate romhacker who always fights for the rights of his fellow romhackers.
I will take them down if asked or not put them in the first place.
Credit or no credit, what makes me angry is that these hacks are uploaded with no permission from the authors at all.
kandowontu Mod
The amount of detail and knowledge you have to have learned about this game to do what you did is astounding. I'll be watching your work with great interest :D
Ranma 1/2: Chougi Ranbu Hen – Big Framerate Improvement (SNES) Romhack - August 8, 2024