Shop selling retropie

briefer

Hi

I have found this shop in Spain selling a pack with retropie installed. Is this legal?

hxxU://www.netway.com.es/comprar/productos/ordenadores-sobremesa/ordenadores-netway/consola-de-juegos-netway-entertaintment-system--rasp-pi-3---retropie-.aspx

cheers

markyh444

@briefer Anybody selling RetroPie images are doing it illegally. The software has specific licensing that prohibits the selling of it and if these come preloaded with ROMs, then it's definitely illegal.

briefer

Thank you, Markyh.

I hope the admin will take action.

cheers

markyh444

@briefer Sadly, nothing really comes of it even if the likes of eBay and Amazon are selling them. They're not too bothered so long as they're getting their cut.

PetroRie

What a coincidence, I just saw an news update in my Facebook feed of RetroEngine Sigma. Sigh... On their site they say the following:

"The system comes with several pre-installed games that work out of the box. "

Can't someone just take them down?

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/retroengine-sigma-mini-video-game-console-cool#/comments

I simply dont understand why they started a campaign for money? So I need to pay them once they reach a goal of 20 000USD they will start making the products which I still have to pay for even after I donated money? HAHAHA. Why would anyone back them? That just doesn't make sense, they want to produce a product which already basically exist right?

I feel sorry for people who backed this project, you can get a Rpi 3 set for less than 50USD. RetroPie is free. If you really want to go hardcore you can buy an awesome case.

I think these kind of money worshiping a-holes are giving RetroPie a bad reputation.

@markyh444 Do you think the RetroPie team could take them down? I've seen many people selling RetroPie loaded with games on eBay.

herb_fargus

@PetroRie preaching to the choir.

Problem is these companies are also money worshipping a holes as you say. They don't care about legalities as long as they get their cut. The only way would be to get a registered trademark and fight them against that with a lawyer but even then... Joys of open source.

markyh444

@PetroRie I think they've tried with limited success. From what @herb_fargus has said in the past, the likes of kickstarter etc aren't too interested and eBay and Amazon make it really difficult to report these sellers effectively and have the listings removed.

PetroRie

@herb_fargus I know it sounds wrong what I'm going to say but these kind of activities are giving piracy a bad name. Normally piracy wasn't like how it was now, it was limited and acceptable only to a group of "sceners", people who saw the protection on software as a challenge to tackle. "warez" was only available to the people who're a part of the scene and was on FTP servers. Nowadays everything get leaked by some greedyass gadmin who wants to impress his friends with his 1TB box till they get exposed.

I was a software cracker and a game hacker and joined an 0day group, I cracked many applications, removed the protectors, made many game trainers for PC games etc. It's just a challenge, but the people who're giving it a bad name are the ones who sell it for profit. I never liked it when someone sold anything, its just wrong. I remember a couple years ago there was one guy who had set up a site and sold copies of XBOX360 and Wii games. The site got eventually closed and he got busted.

Back on topic:
I'm glad RetroPie has so many options and that the configuration can be a pain in the ass for a non tech savy person. If RetroPie would go mainstream I think it would negatively impact the project.

I would say lets report these people to Nintendo lol or any other anti software piracy organization who takes action against these kind of activities.

PaulCheffus

@herb_fargus

Hi

There was this case regarding software that was developed by a group of individuals and then sold by another
http://jmri.org/k/Recent.shtml#2009-12-10

There might be something there worth looking at but from memory I think it cost a lot of money to prove the case.

Cheers

Paul

PetroRie

I just saw this in my Facebook feed about Retrostation Sigma:

Raised $200k in 48h! Don't forget to get yours from $59.
--> 1000% Funded in 48h
--> Limited number of Early Birds

What did I just see? LMAO. The first sentence is hilarious. And what do they even mean 1000% funded? So if I donated like 10USD and re-funded my money I would receive a 1000% extra of the money I donated? Who this is a casino in reverse.

What do they even mean with limited number of early bids? Are they trying to re-create a mini NES situation? So people can bid for some devices before they start selling them? Whats the point of that, I think this is an OrangePi with RetroPie on it. It's not a rare item...

markyh444

New one that Facebook thought I might be interested in... http://joysticked.co.uk

Even says, right there, clear as day, that it comes pre-loaded with RetroPie and puts a link to the site there. Surely that's enough @BuZz @herb_fargus to get them?

Oh, and they all come loaded with ROMs.

BuZz

@markyh444 I wrote to the hosting company, but often things like this get ignored. Even if they did get closed, they could just put their site up on another web host.

markyh444

@BuZz fingers crossed. I'm getting sick of people ripping this project off for a quick buck. Makes me sad inside... 😪

PetroRie

@markyh444 The NES cart was done buy a guy on YouTube. I think they started to selling them after they watched his clips lol.

BuZz

@markyh444

I got a reply:

Thanks for this - I'll forward the report onto the reseller hosting the website.

(The reseller may well be the person themselves or a friend, so I don't think much will happen).

markyh444

@BuZz As another update, Facebook keeps telling me to order one of these.

I read some of the comments and one fella asked the poignant question of how he managed to get permission from all the many many copywrite holders to do this. He had no replies.

PetroRie

@markyh444 said in Shop selling retropie:

@BuZz Facebook keeps telling me to order one of these.

I have the same problem. They have been spamming me over and over. Well, at least some of the comments are fun to read.

markyh444

Just had another look at the Facebook page and I think @BuZz got their website suspended. But they've moved to a shopify site now.

markyh444

@buzz Looks like they've got the original site back now... 😪

BuZz

@markyh444 hosted on their home broadband now. Nothing that can be done - could keep reporting them, but there are so many people doing this. Just have to not worry about them.