Locate source of uploads

Darren Cooper

I was browsing the archive remembering my youth as a huge spectrum fan when I came across a couple of software titles that I wrote as a kid. This quite flattering really, but I was interested to see where the tapes were sourced from?

The two I found are

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0022801
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0027679

Also, for information - spectra soft was a name I made up for the Raiders game, it was later used by a real company and not just a kid in his bedroom. I later changed to New Wave, hence the name of the Composer software was just Composer under the name New Wave.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Darren

jonesypeter

The whole premise of WoS is the permission must be granted from the author before being available for download. This is the reason often given for mirrors of the site not being allowed. You I hope were contacted and gave agreement. The previous site own has now found luv and passed the site to Lee (although he has said he is going) but he should be able to provide the info you need.

The original creator still owns the domain though.

Hope that helps

Ralf

The whole premise of WoS is the permission must be granted from the author before being available for download.

No, it's not true.
WOS has permissions for maybe about 20% of software available here for download.

There was a group of people interested in Spectrum software preserving. They collected old tapes, bought them on auctions and car boot sales. When they found some missing title, they just uploaded it here, without searching for the author.

The software was added in updates, like for example this:

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/archive.new.130224.html

You can see people who uploaded stuff here but as far as I know there is no detailed history stored who uploaded an individual title and where got it from.

And in early days of WOS (think about the 90ties) there were thousands of titles to be added and they were just collected on internet, taken from various other sites, which took them from another sites etc. You can check on file date when it was uploaded which gives you some info

So the short version is: it is impossible to track who uploaded any given title and where got it from.

jonesypeter

Thanks for the info. So why all this constant mention of copyright and the like from others and permissions being so important?

Ralf

Thanks for the info. So why all this constant mention of copyright and the like from others and permissions being so important?

Well, in my opinion some people are really tight-arsed about it and try to be holier that the Pope.

But maybe talk no more about it, such discussions usually lead to flamewars only ;)

jonesypeter

Agreed. Let's stop it there.

Darren Cooper

Hi thanks for the replies. I will try to look through those archives. however i was just interested as to how these were found. They were never released software commercially, I used to submit stuff to the old Prestel network and a couple of magazines, but suprised to see them on here! Very nostalgic.

Alcoholics Anonymous

jonesypeter wrote: »

Agreed. Let's stop it there.

There's no need for a flamewar. There was a period when representatives of software companies were actively sending take down notices to retro websites and they successfully managed to shut down a few large ones. WOS was/is one of the largest repositories of retro software so in order to head that off, some people took on the thankless task of attempting to contact original authors and possible IP holders to gain permission to host their sw. As expected, it is sometimes hard to find these people or determine who owns the IP. Sometimes this led to sw being denied and WOS voluntarily delinked those titles. Sometimes this led to agreements where only WOS was given permission to host. This was achieved because WOS was seen as making an effort to respect copyright. Doing these things may or may not have protected WOS from those early take down campaigns but nevertheless it helped to establish a reputation of respect for the authors / IP holders.

Discussions on this topic often devolve into flamewars because the participants do not understand the history and the conditions under which WOS has existed, what conditions are attached to some of the WOS archive being available in downloadable form (explicit or implied via reputation), or the understandings that the preservation team worked under when supplying their volunteer hours. The flaming usually starts when someone talks about things that abrogate those commitments WOS has made. For example copying the archive someplace else or questioning whether titles have value (and therefore musing about ignoring copyright issues) are ethical problems that WOS has cared about even if others accustomed to piracy do not. No inflammatory language intended there.

Hikaru

*delete*

Bedazzle

Alcoholics Anonymous wrote: »

contact original authors and possible IP holders

How it is possible to get info who is holding rights on a particular game, if software is 30 years old?

Luny

And back on discussion. Darren, that is amazing that you never released commercially but they have made there way to here after all these years. It must be brilliant to find them. I'd be amazed if I found any of the crap I wrote :)

I think this site is slowly being taken over by Pratchett Dwarfs and Wizards. One person starts a conversation and the rest just argue over the smallest of nuances :))

rich_chandler

Luny wrote: »

I think this site is slowly being taken over by Pratchett Dwarfs and Wizards. One person starts a conversation and the rest just argue over the smallest of nuances :))

You've not been here long enough, we've been doing that since day 1...

1024MAK

karingal wrote: »

Luny wrote: »

I think this site is slowly being taken over by Pratchett Dwarfs and Wizards. One person starts a conversation and the rest just argue over the smallest of nuances :))

You've not been here long enough, we've been doing that since day 1...

I've not been here that long, but I thought that had been happening since day 0...

Luny wrote: »

I think this site is slowly being taken over by Pratchett Dwarfs and Wizards. One person starts a conversation and the rest just argue over the smallest of nuances :))

Oi! As a hardwearing part time miracle worker, I'd just like to point out that magic is needed to keep the old ZX Spectrums working!


Mark

fog

Darren Cooper wrote: »

Hi thanks for the replies. I will try to look through those archives. however i was just interested as to how these were found. They were never released software commercially, I used to submit stuff to the old Prestel network and a couple of magazines, but suprised to see them on here! Very nostalgic.

whoever you gave / sold them to probably, and well as there wasn't any copy prot routines.. maybe some bloke called "dave" in a pub gave it to someone (or the younger version of him, the playground pirate)

there are really obscure finds. e.g. someone posted a clip from micro live, I tracked down the author and got the software here from a tape in their basement.. (was made rather easier since the author was a priest) .

loads of folk submitted stuff over the years no doubt.

Ralf

I feel a bit guilty of starting the copyrgiht offtopic ;) so here is my contribution to the original subject.

New Wave Composer was added in this update, in 2012:
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/archive.new.120720.html

It says:
The following people contributed towards this update (in alphabetical order): Andy Barker, Richard Bos, Matthew Carrier, Oleg N. Cher, Climacus, Tom Collier, Alessandro Grussu, Michael Holst-Olesen, Jonathan Kay, Rafał Miazga, ^m00h^, Pgyuri, Pavel Plíva, Ignacio Prini Garcia, Retro-J, Samir Ribic, Sequor and Shadow Maker.


I believe that's all what can be extracted from WOS. You would have to go on quest and ask all these people to learn more :)

MatGubbins

Congratulations for finding your 2 programs Darren.

I'm on the list for due to uploading my own game: Escape II - Some Years Later (have a play, it's compiled BASIC...)

Darren Cooper

Thanks all -Ralf , that's a start, I'm not sure stalking all those people is a good idea to find out more. I spoke to my dad he recalls we sent the programs in to a company called Micrometer that submitted them out to people for review/feedback - we also used to receive programs to review too. I guess either they or one of the reviewers hung on to them for nostalgia. Amazing really.