If I am a Devil, why do I HARP?

S

Shamus The Brute

Note: I "love" all kinds of genres of music! 🎶 I really "hate" policy, or restrictions, put in place which arrr heavily one-sided! :mad: This thread is written in a unique way to touch upon both (to possibly help everyone understand the position I choose to take and the actual explanation, from myself, as to why). Please know, this thread is not meant to sway you! Rather instead, the hope is bring forth understanding to eliminate 🏳 some feelings of angst which exist between this forums, the community of TLOPO, and myself.

If I am a Devil 👹, exactly why do I HARP?


Specifically, why do I choose to HARP everyone about copyright (in the context that I too 'used to' harp about copyright in lieu of permission)? Am I actually the Devil in disguise? I would hope that I am not. (I have given some thought to the fact though that I could be Smeagol's Gollum 🐸 to many of you).


A secret: Friendships struck online are quite important to me! I do not take these connections lightly. With that said, I do take it to heart sometimes once a friendship I did have 💔 (online) evaporates into the thin air of some technogical "cloud." ☁

A truth: Copyright law today is faulty! This is especially true for abandonware (or games abandoned by the developer owner). While the copyright grants all rights to the owner alone, at the same time the law dismisses a sense of responsibility the owner should partake if the "after effects" 🎆🌠of the abandoned game itself readily survive once the game itself is closed (when it is known the owner won't create derivative works further from the game). Of course, communication 📞☎ itself is always stifled and it is nearly impossible for anyone to understand whom the specific copyright owner is for an abandoned game where true permission is both desired and sought. As if these types of detriments weren't bad enough, all points of time are manipulated solely by the (unknown) copyright owner and that makes current abandonware law ⚖...unfair. 👎


Maybe call it integrity: While it may appear that I support copyright as if I am some love-sick puppy 🤪🧸, I view copyright as it is: imperfect but a law which is to be followed. I am an adult/this is what I do! But I can vouch to say (given my own experience), complying with copyright is about as fun as going to the local health clinic to get a prostrate exam from a 6-fingered doctor!


Jokes aside, here is a point I would like to stress mostly upon this thread: abandonware law currently "forces" :pirate duel:people to choose sides! Such division has happened here (between most of you and I). Our experience is not exempt. Contrary to popular opinion, the law has real implications not understood by the Acting Register of Copyright and the Librarian of Congress. (Both people mistakenly view the law usually from the perspective of the owner, not from interests which seek to both study and preserve a game which has since closed). As a result, individuals have few alternatives available to understand what actions are permissible to be taken which then leads the majority of people to pick a side - to comply with copyright or not.

A matter of confusion: Most of you can agree that copyright law in general is overly confusing to understand. 😵 Important to games shuttered by their developer owners, the lack of clarity surrounding copyright does little to nothing to be of help to gamers whom are left to pick up the pieces after announcement of a game's closure. Important to TLOPO, factor in Disney's "plausible deniability" stance (the reasoning and logic held strongly by some of you) what you got left is a recipe for a dish served called division (between people) due to perceived interpretation of what constitutes actual rights within the copyright wording. In other words, current copyright - important to abandonware - destroys not only fair interpretation but also relationships (which would have otherwise remained intact due to agreed upon, interpretation)! You pirates here...I really hope you feel I don't support this? I don't ;) and so, here I am having to explain myself.


Back to the question I feel I owe everyone: Why do I HARP 🎼📣 on copyright here, periodically towards TLOPO, and openly to the ex-POTCO community? Below are my reasons.

Lousy and fouled up I had done, I think what I am trying to do is show everyone that "the RIGHT thing" to do is not easy to follow but it is nonetheless do-able. And, I think too, I am trying to show that holes 🕳 do actually exist within current law per the implications I have tried to share/I have tried to explain here. Admittantly, perhaps too I am trying to draw attention towards something which desperately needs fixed (to which I feel [quite strongly] as a community we are in a position better equipped than most to pursue and to influence such a 'fix'. You might disagree. I respect that). Then again, few people on piratesforums publicly support my ideas, strategies, and outlook I uphold in lieu of POTCO's closure. *Today, my question to challenge each of you is: am I to be blamed entirely for this -or- is a broken system of copyright/abandonware law to be blamed? :confused:

Thank you.
 
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