I've no problem of my games being distributed in such way, I'm not looking for visitors to my page, no promotion at all ...; but I agree with sjoerd and viejo, some promotion is always welcome if you want it. Too late for the past games; but maybe the new edition games could include some reference to the recently opened MSXDev site, this way it could be credited even when the game is freely spreaded thru the web.
The key is what XanOri points, the games must be as widespreaded as possible; but always asking to give a look to the site. I'm sure that all the (really interested) people will pay a visit looking for more quality games

NYYRIKKI: The real thing is that, checking Karoshi's site, game manuals, etc... we don't remark that point about the distribution thing and, as our games are freeware, you just grabbed it and just put it into your compilation. So perhaps it could be part our fault . I will include some texts in the website and into the game manuals for the future, ok?.

viejo_archivero, You should probably pick one (or write your own) freeware license that you feel is good for you and provide it with the download as well as writing it on your website.

Many freeware licenses does not allow redistribution, copying, modification, commercial use etc. But it is important that you specify those things.

dvik: Yep, that's what I was thinking about

On the other hand, I think NYYRIKKI's disk is definately in the spirit of a good party. Cracking a bunch of copyrighted games and put them all on one single disk in a nice format. After all, we all use illegal copies of games and demos and its a big part of the MSX scene.

viejo_archivero : what concerns all the MSXdev' games, I think you should add the precisions about the freeware licence in all the game manuals if the authors have clearly declared some restrictions; the games without these precisions should be 'completely' freeware, also for the redistribution for example.

I'm not sure if its correct to assume that freeware = free software (which can be used, copied modified,.. without restriction) if a detailed license is not published with the software. Freeware is not the same thing as free software (defined by the Free Software Foundation).

Indeed, free software as explained on this page can be viewed as a different concept :

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html

Especially if I consider this :

"You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to sell copies."

In case of MSXdev' games, the intention is not to transform freeware games into commercial games. So, that's a big difference ... and there are another ones.

See also this page with comparison between different kind of licences :

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/categories.html

About freeware :

"The term ``freeware'' has no clear accepted definition, but it is commonly used for packages which permit redistribution but not modification (and their source code is not available)."

So, generally redistribution of freeware is tolerated.

Then a proper freeware license would be good, especially important is to add something like: Free for personal, non-commercial use.

This makes it illegal to e.g. publish it in magazines or as part of a commercial product.

Quote:

So, generally redistribution of freeware is tolerated.

In the case of the game disk I think the original games is modified to run from disk, so then its probably not allowed. But in the spirit of the free MSX community I don't see any moral issues with the disk. I think you need to accept that MSXers doesn't care too much about licensing and even opposes and have issues with companies and organizations that try to restrict the use of their MSX products.

So to avoid any controversy and double standards I think its better to release the games under the free software license.

The MRC has always considered freeware to be software that you are legally to distribute anywhere, provided you don't charge money for it, and distribute it without modifications. To be on the safe side, for the vast majority of the software hosted in our downloads corner we asked for the explicit permission of the developers to put them in our downloads corner. In many cases developers submitted it to us themselves. We think of it as no problem that - e.g. - MSX Valley hosts the MRC Challenge entries as well. As we were not sure about the MSXdev entries, we only published the Universe: Unknown Infinite have sent to us. Needless to say, we would not mind hosting the other entries.

Quote:

Indeed, free software as explained on this page can be viewed as a different concept : http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html Especially if I consider this : "You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to sell copies." In case of MSXdev' games, the intention is not to transform freeware games into commercial games. So, that's a big difference ... and there are another ones.

Note that there's always the possibilty to download it for free. If someone is selling it, you can consider it a fee for his work of the packaging or the medium. That's how things go with Linux distros. YOu can pay for e.g. SUSE and you will get a nice box with a book and a DVD and some support maybe. But you can also just download it for free and you can also just copy it all, legally.
That makes it a bit commercial potentially, but you are never forced to make use of that commercial service.

Anyway, this means that such a license wouldn't transform the games to commercial games. But it will be allowed to sell them. (I wonder who will buy it, unless they put it in a cool cartridge or so! But then it might be worth the price!)
If you're not allowed to redistribute the game, you can't hope that some cool person will make a big cart of it

Me just got a brilliant idea. I'll register www.openmsx.com, and charge $30 for each download of the latest and greatest openMSX

I'll even concider adding an email service so that registered buyers will get an email notification when a new version is available.

dvik - go ahead, it's free software

People are selling cd's with Debian GNU/Linux on it, including openMSX... no problemz...