Is this a violation of license?

Ekstreme

Couldn't see this posted before, but I saw this on Facebook today: hxxps://www.facebook.com/RetropieAustralia/
Images are sold with the system, though modified apparently. very misleading that it says "Official"

monstermadeofman

I found a similar thing whilst searching for casing ideas

hxxps://www.maxpie.com.au/

Not sure if they are the same guys but it's also based out of Australia. I'm pretty sure that this one is a violation of license. But they are breaking copyright laws by selling them with the loaded Rom files.

It does say "Custom Firmware", but when you watch their videos quite a few of their products clearly use Retropie

PetroRie

@monstermadeofman said in Is this a violation of license?:

t sure if they are the same guys but it's also based out of Australia. I'm pretty sure that this one is a violation of license. But they are breaking copyright laws by selling them with the loaded Rom files.

I freaking hate it when people sell roms. It's just disgusting. They're even using the PSN logo into their crappy "artwork" lol.

hxxps://www.maxpie.com.au/index.php/product/maxpie-8000/

It's funny how those other guys said "the official", as if there is an official hardware device that represents RetroPie. RetroPie is a piece of software, they took misleading people to the new level it seems.

monstermadeofman

@PetroRie

Oh god I didn't notice that!

I love that their casing is also just a standard Pi case with their logo sticker slapped on it. It looks like something you could pick up at a car boot sale... But seriously selling them fully loaded is a bit of liberty.

PetroRie

@monstermadeofman

I wonder how long it takes before they get sued by Nintendo? Before I found out about the Raspberry I almost purchased an Android handheld gaming device. It was one of those made in China things, according to the reviews it was a high build quality device and the manufacturer had their own app people could download. Reviews said that it has tons of illegal software, some of them said "cracked by bla bla bla". It does happen, people do sell illegal software (which they got for free).

Downloading illegal games, roms and movies for own use isn't that bad but selling them is.

cyperghost

@Ekstreme
Hehe ... RetropieAustralia seems to be a solid beta tester for Retropie v4.0 :)
But on the other hand he reffers to retropie.org.uk so the tributes go to the right people.

herb_fargus

@PetroRie well everyone has their own set of ethics and we defer that to each user to decide for themselves. I'll be the first to say that copyright law is outdated and caters to greedy corporations, but the fact is selling other people's work for your own gain is unethical and illegal.

The biggest issue with these opportunistic scumbags is they act like they are official which hurts the image of the RetroPie project and can get us into trouble, so anytime you see unofficial sellers especially when they are selling roms please report them, we do what we can but its an issue that won't go away anytime soon especially as retropie becomes more popular.

The other thing I don't get is why people are stupid enough to pay for something they can get for free. RetroPie is easy enough for a child to set up in less than an hour, why you'd spend twice as much to save 15 minutes is beyond me.

lilbud

This looks like one of those knock off systems an older family member would buy you around christmas time.

SimonBelmont

@herb_fargus I always imagined people bought these things for the added layer of security. If the law comes knocking on your door, you could claim innocence by ignorance. "I didn't download any ROMs. It was those people who sold me the console! I don't even know what a ROM is or why it's illegal"

That defense totally wouldn't work but some people find comfort in knowing there is a 3rd party to point the finger at if there is trouble.

BuZz

Complicated to take down ebay items and facebook pages too. If enough people "report" the page facebook might do something. Ebay requires a form printed, filled out, sent back etc etc. They don't want things to get in the way of their profit eh!

cyperghost

@herb_fargus
You get my deepest respect for such kind of words.

But you ask why people are so stupid to buy those things?
Because they don't know how to handle the whole thing. You need to buy a RPi, you need a Controller, you need wires, you need even a PC.... you need to read forums... you need to handle a linux system. Ask those people about SSH, root, user rights, chmod......! - wtf...?
That costs so much time and if you compare time and money then it's sometimes cheaper to buy a ready build system. If there is a demand - there is a market.

You called them opportunistic scumbags - ita

BuZz

@cyperghost You don't need to know all that to run a basic retropie set-up.

dankcushions

@cyperghost said in Is this a violation of license?:

@herb_fargus
You get my deepest respect for such kind of words.

But you ask why people are so stupid to buy those things?
Because they don't know how to handle the whole thing. You need to buy a RPi, you need a Controller, you need wires, you need even a PC.... you need to read forums... you need to handle a linux system. Ask those people about SSH, root, user rights, chmod......! - wtf...?
That costs so much time and if you compare time and money then it's sometimes cheaper to buy a ready build system. If there is a demand - there is a market.

You called them opportunistic scumbags - ita

well simply pre-loading retropie on a system will not avoid any issues you may or may not subsequently get. it seems they've done only the most basic of configuration.

plus, it doesn't matter - they've broken the license. not just of retropie, but a lot of the 3rd party components within. https://retropie.org.uk/documentation/legal-contact/

just reading their website and listings - ugh, "the official", the retropie logo, videos and forum links shown as if they are their own. scumbags.

Concat

Wow... I've seen people selling prebuilt stuff before and including RetroPie on the SD card, but most don't even market it. You only see it when you get to their shop and buy an sd card. That Facebook page is actually trying to look like they are affiliated with RetroPie, or are an arm of RetroPie in Australia. Totally unacceptable.

cyperghost

@BuZz But you should know what Hardware do you need and even worse you have to burn the image to a SD. So you habeto be prepared (a bit) for a setup.

I hope those circumstances will not Fallback to this project. That would be a pitty.

BuZz

@cyperghost There are plenty of guides out there that tell you exactly what you need - even we have a small overview on the site - https://retropie.org.uk/documentation/building-your-own-retropie-machine/

and there are plenty of people selling everything you need in a kit. The user just has to follow the basic instructions of downloading/copying/booting etc.

Floob

As there is a reputable sellers list, I wonder if a "Rogues Gallery" would help make clear that some sellers are clearly operating illegally.
Or perhaps that would just give them more promotion...

BuZz

@Floob we could name them although it might give them promotion - we wouldn't link of course so they wouldn't get any benefit from search engine ranking. I'm in two minds about it - but it's not a bad idea.

Ekstreme

This a$$hat is giving us Aussies a bad name. I've reported him through Facebook, I suggest we all do the same.

ronlaws86

I have mixed feelings about this also, on the other hand, how difficult would it be for the retropie project to offer pre-installed SD cards? like the RasPi foundation do with the NOOBS image, better yet, Is retropie in the noobs image as an install option? could be a way to fight back. (just a thought)