Commander Keen 6 not to get legally?

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Pokota
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Post by Pokota »

CapnClever wrote:In any case, if Keen 6 is with Atari, I can't imagine Atari caring enough to release anything relating to the game. You could always try to ask anyway!
Didn't Atari sell off a whole bunch of IP as part of a bankruptcy last year? I remember that had an impact on Baldur's Gate.
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Post by spikey »

I don't think too many (business) people will be interested (aside from Interceptor, possibly) unless a new interest in Keen IP springs up.

There's certainly not many who would make significant money if Keen 6 was legally released versus not (IMHO, correct me if I'm wrong).
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Flaose
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Post by Flaose »

Atari may have sold off the rights when they went bankrupt last year, I'm not sure anyone knows who's allowed to distribute Keen 6 anymore...
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SupFanat
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Unfortunately,

Post by SupFanat »

the copyright holders only appear when they are against distribution of the stuff by others. They ignore the problem, that some stuff isn't available, many years long. As soon as others wish to do something against the problem "no, it isn't OK, it's illegal!".
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Nospike
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Post by Nospike »

Welp, guess that means there's only one way to find out... :p We're gonna need a volunteer guys, and a darn good lawyer.
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Post by MoffD »

Nospike wrote:Welp, guess that means there's only one way to find out... :p We're gonna need a volunteer guys, and a darn good lawyer.
Nospike volunteers!
I just wish they would hurry up and decide to do something with it instead of sitting on their backsides for years. Although the recent developments have given me cheer.

Just think of the children! (who are missing good education due to a lack of Keen)
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spikey
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Post by spikey »

I think if people really want to play Keen 6, they'll figure it out. It's not like in the late 90's->2008ish, where you had to be darn good with a search engine and crawl throguh a million Geocities/Angelfire webpages..
SupFanat
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Post by SupFanat »

Thanks to the people, who protect "intellectual property extremely long. The copyright lasts for decades.

Destroying of "intellectual property" is no problem, but replication is a problem. The same is discussed in the next topic "source code found?". They have no problem with destruction of the original source code, but the replication is very undesirable. It should be vice versa - "destruction is very bad, replication ist very good". The "copyright" is conceived as a means for benefit. But they don't get any benefit from the fact, that the distribution of Commander Keen 6 is "illegal". Does the copyright holder want to earn some money by selling of Commander Keen 6? Then why don't they sell it?
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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

Try asking a squirrel to sell one of his nuts. :dead
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jayo
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Post by jayo »

mortimer wrote:This is something I'd never read before:
tvtropes, so it must be true wrote:The running theory is that since the game's manual is missing in the Steam version, Keen 6 is no longer sold via Steam because the copy protection quiz can't be removed.
Not sure I believe it, but still interesting.
I don't buy it either! They could just include a pdf scan of the manual with the game, like what other companies have done for their DOS games.
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Post by JackDaniels »

Regardless of whether CK6 is legal or illegal, it will not be a problem to distribute it (illegally) on forums such as PCKF. The copyright holder is not going to care about a 20 year old game that only a few people on earth are still playing. Any legal conflict would not make sense for them, because (i) the opportunity cost to commence a lawsuit will cost tons of money and (ii) it will be difficult to convince a judge that the copyright holder actually incurred any (significant) losses as a result of the violation.

Not encouraging anybody to distribute CK6 illegally, but fearing a lawsuit is absolutely ridiculous.
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Post by Keening_Product »

JackDaniels wrote:The copyright holder is not going to care about a 20 year old game that only a few people on earth are still playing.
Don't be so sure: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/04/p ... e-servers/
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Post by Roobar »

Keening_Product wrote:Don't be so sure: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/04/p ... e-servers/
That's a completely different thing. Abandonware sites may have much bigger traffic, thus bringing attention to themselves. Still nothing to do with this particular forum, which is like a needle in the hay of internet, where there are no more than 20-30 active people. Think of this as if you've invited these people at your home, playing and modding CK.

We've discussed this like million times...
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Levellass
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Post by Levellass »

They made Keen GBC; let's never underestimate their hatred of the games.
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Post by GoldenRishi »

Not to point out the obvious, but there are plenty of websites that you can pirate Keen 6 from. It'd be great to obtain a legal copy, but when the IP holders don't give any crap about keeping up the title (including both allowing people to legally purchase it as well as keeping people from pirating it), I can't really see any argument that pirating could possibly be a problem.

My philosophy 13 years ago was that if they wanted me not to pirate it, then they should make it legal to purchase. If not, then I have no qualms about pirating it.
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