* If you can find ways to collect and preserve copies of the software, that can be big value. Every version and variation of a title has sometimes been important after the fact. Maybe use archive.org for historical archiving of software with unclear licensing status, and link to it from your wiki, with your wiki providing the background text and organizing that isn't archive.org's strong suit. (I'm not talking about piracy, but just trying to ensure that any copy at all survives, which had been a real problem on some other platforms of this era. Also, it's easier to get a company to say that such-and-such software from a company three acquisitions ago is OK for people to run on vintage boxes and in emulators and museums, than to ask them to find and provide a working copy, which they usually cannot.)
* You might want to capture provenance/copyright info for uploaded photos, like Wikipedia kinda does. Easier to capture it at upload/linking time, than to try to reconstruct it later.
I obtain copyright permission of all original images before uploading and give people clear contacts to do it. I refuse to install extensions that could clobber the setup (many aren't compatible with postgres). I also make an attempt to contact rightsholders. the only stuff I don't have permission for is a few system image placeholders and the logos of companies. The SGI trademarks are basically gone though, HPE ain't using them.
If you can find ways to collect and preserve copies of the software, that can be big value. Every version and variation of a title has sometimes been important after the fact. Maybe use archive.org for historical archiving of software with unclear licensing status, and link to it from your wiki, with your wiki providing the background text and organizing that isn't archive.org's strong suit. (I'm not talking about piracy, but just trying to ensure that any copy at all survives, which had been a real problem on some other platforms of this era. Also, it's easier to get a company to say that such-and-such software from a company three acquisitions ago is OK for people to run on vintage boxes and in emulators and museums, than to ask them to find and provide a working copy, which they usually cannot.)
Over at IRIXNet we do have some files and such preserving what's not likely to get us in trouble, but I choose to not deal with copyrighted works on tech-pubs (which unlike IRIXNet is my pet project, not a part of IRIXNet)
Well, for me, it's just not feasible for me to take the gambles archive.org and others do. I am a professional locksmith in IRL, and "piracy" could lead me to losing my livelihood as my license could be revoked. I also have only so many hours in a day to keep stuff running. You think I need more mailboxes to be checked etc?
Plus, nowadays, dmca rightsholders will bypass you, going straight to the host provider who will lock you down for gods know how long until someone gets back to you.
I am not like Peter Plank, who ran nekochan.net. I have professional infrastructure,paid developers and a few sysadmins who help me run it all. It costs me nearly a grand a year to keep the lights on.
Is it worth the risk? Honestly, it's not! The only things I host are IRIX install media, and HPE moreorless said informally/noncommittally, "don't sell it and we're not gonna care!"
Thank you. Yeah, I could see why collaboration with archive.org would be extra work.
And also that you don't want any legal headache splashing back, such as if they get into a big copyright dispute (which, unfortunately, they have, in recent history).
Comments
Nice. Couple comments:
* If you can find ways to collect and preserve copies of the software, that can be big value. Every version and variation of a title has sometimes been important after the fact. Maybe use archive.org for historical archiving of software with unclear licensing status, and link to it from your wiki, with your wiki providing the background text and organizing that isn't archive.org's strong suit. (I'm not talking about piracy, but just trying to ensure that any copy at all survives, which had been a real problem on some other platforms of this era. Also, it's easier to get a company to say that such-and-such software from a company three acquisitions ago is OK for people to run on vintage boxes and in emulators and museums, than to ask them to find and provide a working copy, which they usually cannot.)
* You might want to capture provenance/copyright info for uploaded photos, like Wikipedia kinda does. Easier to capture it at upload/linking time, than to try to reconstruct it later.
I obtain copyright permission of all original images before uploading and give people clear contacts to do it. I refuse to install extensions that could clobber the setup (many aren't compatible with postgres). I also make an attempt to contact rightsholders. the only stuff I don't have permission for is a few system image placeholders and the logos of companies. The SGI trademarks are basically gone though, HPE ain't using them.
Over at IRIXNet we do have some files and such preserving what's not likely to get us in trouble, but I choose to not deal with copyrighted works on tech-pubs (which unlike IRIXNet is my pet project, not a part of IRIXNet)
Thank you for your work. If you happen to have any thoughts on when it makes sense to collaborate with archive.org, and when not, I'd be curious.
Well, for me, it's just not feasible for me to take the gambles archive.org and others do. I am a professional locksmith in IRL, and "piracy" could lead me to losing my livelihood as my license could be revoked. I also have only so many hours in a day to keep stuff running. You think I need more mailboxes to be checked etc?
Plus, nowadays, dmca rightsholders will bypass you, going straight to the host provider who will lock you down for gods know how long until someone gets back to you.
I am not like Peter Plank, who ran nekochan.net. I have professional infrastructure,paid developers and a few sysadmins who help me run it all. It costs me nearly a grand a year to keep the lights on.
Is it worth the risk? Honestly, it's not! The only things I host are IRIX install media, and HPE moreorless said informally/noncommittally, "don't sell it and we're not gonna care!"
Thank you so much for all your work.
Thank you. Yeah, I could see why collaboration with archive.org would be extra work.
And also that you don't want any legal headache splashing back, such as if they get into a big copyright dispute (which, unfortunately, they have, in recent history).