XorA wrote:
I doubt I can be much help being such a newbie, but a maintained MIA list would be good so if people happen to stumbled on stashes at car boots etc they can quickly check the MIA list!
- Dave has agreed to host the QL Wiki now on sinclairql.com which will help - he is also looking at converting the data to run on MediaWiki instead of WiClear
- swensont has started work on a QL Software and Books database
As asked, the question comes as to what I intend to do with this?
Well, I suppose I could follow the lead of Elite for the Spectrum and get a QL emulator which will run on the iPad and sell the games in bundles - and then just not pay any royalties out or maybe just remove any copyright information from the games.... Oh and then run a Kickstarter to get a huge amount of funding to 'use my best endeavours' to develop a Bluetooth QL which you will only be able to play games which I sell.... (and may one day be adapted for use with other emulators....)
It is odd, but although people moan at me for preserving QL software and protecting the rights of copyright authors - those same people don't seem to attack Elite for what they have done.
At least the people who have agreed to me re-releasing their software commercially have been paid their royalties (and therefore earned more money in the past 3 years than the software authors who signed royalty agreements with Elite !)
My intentions are at least honourable -
- if I can get permission for software to be released for free distribution, then I will.
- If I can only get permission to release the software on a commercial basis, then I will do that (subject to being able to bypass copyright protection) and will pay royalties to the copyright holder.
- If I can't either either of the permissions, then at least people will be able to get a replacement working copy of any software they already own (again subject to bypassing the copyright protection).
In the longer term, the more coverage there is of the QL, the QL WIki and the software preservation project, the more chance there is of attracting new software and hearing from the copyright holders to sort out the position of the older software.
RWAP wrote:
My intentions are at least honourable -
- if I can get permission for software to be released for free distribution, then I will.
- If I can only get permission to release the software on a commercial basis, then I will do that (subject to being able to bypass copyright protection) and will pay royalties to the copyright holder.
- If I can't either either of the permissions, then at least people will be able to get a replacement working copy of any software they already own (again subject to bypassing the copyright protection).
Rich, I think what people aren't getting and the thing they should get is that you do this IN ORDER.
You see if they'll release it for free.
Failing that, you see if they'll release it for commercial sale.
Failing that, you put it in the preservation stack.
You've done everything you can to get the software out there where people can still access it, and to otherwise preserve it.
Yes - although remember that there are some excellent Spectrum emulators for the QL already - written by Ergon Software and available on the Sinclair QL Homepage.
Would be nice to see a proper QL version, with extra tweaks maybe. Bit like the co-pro version of bbc elite or the version with loads of different ships.
