Hyperkin’s Retron5 License Violations :P

[CRTGAMER]

My question is: Whoever has the rights to the code, or whatever, did they have any plans to release a piece of hardware to the community?

Yeah that's how I see it. Hyperkin took something with no value to me (emulators) and added value to it through hardware that can play the original carts. At least now the emulators are being used to play legitimately purchased games rather than roms downloaded off the internet en mass.

Probably the true-est argument I've seen in this whole entire thread so far to be honest about the r5's whole thing...

However, Hyperkin is dishonest in that profit using the Licensed Emulators that they had no right to. My earlier statement that it would be difficult to prove who owns the EMUs is likey why Hyperkin released it with little fear of reprisal.

This discourages emulator authors from creating updates to their work due to someone else profiting from it. A worse scenario of development loss then pirating commercial games since most of the EMUs are made under the stipulation as licensed freeware. The justification the emulators are getting more exposure, well how about giving all the developers of the EMUs a cut of the profit? Hyperkin put them on your payroll to make the Retron 5 console even better!

Its nice the Retron came out and eventually I might buy one myself, but don't claim Hyperkin is in the right just because the original authors have not made a hardware version.

Yeah, you should watch the History Channel mini series called "The Men Who Built America." IIRC, Ford won his court case right around the same time the courts were breaking up the ruthless monopolies the country had at that time, so it was good timing for him. Also, I've seen that documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car" before. I think you'd like "The Men Who Built America," you should give it a watch.

Seen that too, a nice informative documentary. Shame so many of the programs on the "educational" channels have gone to reality show crap though.

[Ziggy]

Yeah, the History Channel is really going the way of MTV. HC is flooded with so many reality shows that they had to make a second History Channel to be able to show documentaries and whatnot again. Just like how MTV made MTV2 so they could show music videos again.

[darsparx]

Yeah, the History Channel is really going the way of MTV. HC is flooded with so many reality shows that they had to make a second History Channel to be able to show documentaries and whatnot again. Just like how MTV made MTV2 so they could show music videos again.

They really ought to push the new crap to the second channel instead and bring the historical stuff to the first channel(same with mtv if they ever played music videos of music I liked )

[marurun]

Honestly, I think the license agreement/GPL portion of this will be the part which, if this ever goes to court, will make the real difference. You don't need permission to use GPLed code, but by using it you have to make certain concessions as spelled out in the license, concessions that Hyperkin has largely ignored, or, if they have later complied, complied only in part and not in full. US courts, as well as many foreign courts, have held that license agreements are pretty darn enforceable. The GPL has specifically not been court tested, though it has come awfully close.

I don't see any reason Hyperkin would have to basically shut down operations, as all they have to do is make sure they comply with the GPL, and other relevant licenses, in full. If they refuse, it would be relatively straightforward to have importation of the Retron 5 blocked, thus making it unavailable in the US. The question remains, however, as to who would be willing to take up the mantle of making all this happen. Emulation communities are typically not very monied communities.

*edit*

Crap, just went back and re-read the links. Yeah, some of the licenses prohibit commercial use of the code. There is no way to comply with those licenses, which means the Retron 5 would have to remove that code altogether from their project. The non-commercial clauses can often be used to protect emulator authors from legal attacks. I would suspect that if a particular emulator author did take this issue to court, they would either get a settlement or win. Not sure Hyperkin has the funds to drag this out in court too badly, and there are a number of good tech lawyers who do low-cost or pro-bono work. As much as I like the idea of the Retron 5, I really wish Hyperkin had gone a more legit route.