What's the point of Frank Cafaldi's prototype archiving, if the data is never shared?

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

I have prototypes I currently don't want to share but I don't know if in the future I might. Also, I want to play it and one day I'm not going to be able to play it because of bit rot. Thankfully it has been dumped so I can always play the dump even if the cartridge dies.

[Sumez | 2,967]

On 12/6/2023 at 2:40 PM, RH said:

what's even the point of the process if the preserved data is never allowed to be distributed. used, analyzed, etc.

That's not true though? All of it is freely available for those purposes.

He's not distributing pirated games so anyone can just play them for free without the permission from the rights holder, that's a completely separate thing.

To be honest, most incomplete prototypes aren't really interesting for playing anyway, and the ones that are more complete again usually aren't too different from the released games. The variations are all being documented, so you got that covered. Completely unreleased games are of course the biggest interest to the general public, and to my knowledge Cifaldi will make those available given any legal possibility to do so.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

I guess the question becomes whether owners of physical cartridges be allowed to dictate how the data is spread, if they don't have the right to be owning that cartridge to begin with, as is the case for the vast majority of prototypes.

[spacepup | 2,405]

1 hour ago, fcgamer said:

I guess the question becomes whether owners of physical cartridges be allowed to dictate how the data is spread, if they don't have the right to be owning that cartridge to begin with, as is the case for the vast majority of prototypes.

They may not have any actual legal right, but from a practical perspective, they "control" access to that data by being the only person with it. 

There are many different perspectives, of course, about what their 'responsibility' is and what is the best moral, ethical, and/or legal move.  Different people have very different (and very strong, sometimes) opinions about that, and not everyone agrees.

At the end of the day, if someone has an unreleased prototype in their possession, they [practically] control what happens, regardless of copyright, legal issues, because they can choose to what extent they will preserve and/or share data about that prototype.

I know individuals who have prototypes and will not share data because they think it will decrease their own personal value.  I know others who have prototypes who will not share data because they do not think they have the legal ability to do so.  Then I know others who share everything and don't care about any legal issues, etc.

Ultimately, you are right that just because someone has a prototype in their possession, it probably doesn't really give them any actual legal authority or otherwise to decide what to do with the data or how it should/can be shared, but as I mentioned above, they hold the keys in that scenario and ultimately have the power to decide, whether they should or not.