Illegal

[stalepie]

I'm sorry I came to this site and helped out. The people here are nice, but I think this activity is illegal. We shouldn't be reproducing game music we don't have the rights to and then redistributing it.

I should have posted this a long time ago, but I've gotten increasingly worried about stealing.

[SmartOne]

Either way it doesn't matter. We are preserving what would undoubtedly become lost. Spend your energy on something more useful than worrying.

[Avanze]

This is not stealing. Project2612 is al non-profit outfit, that being the key point. Anyway, just think of all the other great archives of old videogame music, like HVSC and SNDH. Besides I own all the games from which I have downloaded the soundtrack from here.

[SmartOne]

Ha, I don't. But like I said, it doesn't matter.

[neologix]

does or doesn't vgm fall under "reverse engineering" sections of emulation law?

[stimmo]

well if anyone really cared they would have sent a C & D and i can tell you that we have had at least one of the original composers talk to us (people on the site) about some things. so if you're feeling squeamish feel free to leave.

*edit* by some things i mean in a good way GO US!

[Stefan Lindberg]

Lot's of stuff on the internet is illegal, not only music but pictures as well... just many of those avatars (like mine) used by people on forums are not their work... as long they are not the copyright holders then it's illegal. But i doubt the copyright holder cares about it as long no profit are made on thier work, and it's not that project2612 has mp3's taken from official soundtrack CD releases for download

[SmartOne]

I thought that copyright laws only protected the Read Only Memory, anyway. VGM contains captured chip intsructions. It doesn't even include game specific sound drivers.

[Knurek]

Well, if you make MP3s out of CDDA, the resulting files don't have any bytes in common with the original source, but you can still get your butt busted by RIAA or similar.

Like Stefan said, as long as no profit's being made, the game companies will leave the site alone, like they do with all the other ones. 's not like putting SIDs up is any more legal than VGMs given the absurd length of copyright. The costs (legal fees, time, publicity loss with fanbase) far outweight potential gain.

[Galivan]

I'm sorry I came to this site and helped out. The people here are nice, but I think this activity is illegal..

You think it is illegal, but do you think it is wrong?

When I think about game music I often think about how unknown it is, how few people now about the great music that lies hidden in old games.

If someone is solely interested in music and curious to hear some megadrive music for example, should he/she buy a megadrive and buy some games, then record the music with an audio cable onto a computer with a soundcard, and then maybe burn the files onto a disc, and THEN play it in a cdplayer, just to see if it's good or interesting?

I think good music deserves attention, and I think it's important that it's available to those that are curious to hear it.

I was thinking about putting up some music by Paul Norman (C-64) on youtube just to make people discover the great music. I haven't heard of buying c-64 soundtracks, I don't think there is any, maybe a few but mostly compilations with the most popular stuff.