Niggles: There is a related thread about that....

arrexius: I am asking this because it is sometimes the case that GOG manage to secure the rights to a game, but whoever holds them lacks the very assets they have the rights to! I am also worried that, without such an online resource, a requested game lies in a deadlock because we don't know GOG has picked it up for negotiations and they don't know when we can help get it released.

arrexius: Hello,

I appreciate from a recent RPS article about GOG.com, that a significant part of the re-issue process of old games is played by the search for retail versions of a game they intend to re-publish, and that sometimes it goes through contributions by the community, especially when there are multiple versions of a game and the source code is lost.

So I was wondering if there is a space here somewhere where GOG themselves can post open calls for versions of the game, or other materials thereof, that they intend to publish. Stuff like "We are negotiating the rights for game X but we need retail version Y - if a user has it can they please send it to us?" (maybe not discuss stuff such as rewards, that's between the publisher and the user).

I am asking this because it is sometimes the case that GOG manage to secure the rights to a game, but whoever holds them lacks the very assets they have the rights to! I am also worried that, without such an online resource, a requested game lies in a deadlock because we don't know GOG has picked it up for negotiations and they don't know when we can help get it released.

Maybe such a resource (such as a sticky forum thread or another wishlist category) could even be usd to proxy material requests from associates such as Night Dive or Retroism?

Cheers.

nightcraw1er.488: I think the problem there is the legality of it. I have, for a lot of my older games, imaged them so as not to destroy the CD, however that is not technically legal in some cases. And the tranmission of that to a third party is definately a nono. Also, technically, some games are a real bitch to try to take anything from - looking at you starforce/securom, which are specifically designed to stop you doing this.

Wishbone: Nothing illegal about it, since GOG has the distribution rights for the games in question. They've even been known to use existing cracks to remove DRM from retail versions of games, and they certainly didn't get the cracks from retail discs.

arrexius: Great, do you think you can help me find it?

toxicTom: There you are: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/the_search_for_game_rights_a_diaryesque_thread

arrexius: ...

arrexius: Thank you very much. It is indeed related if somehow complementary to this. Let us assume here that GOG has secured the rights, which would basically allow them to grant permission to make one copy to be sent to them (provided the mid-2000's generation DRM doesn't prevent that).

It is apparently the case that they have turned to eBay more than once. In this respect, I am starting to worry that I might have blown my own chance to get some rare Windows game on GOG by getting a copy off eBay before they did. Ouch.

Maighstir: I know for a fact that people on the forum have contributed extra material for some games, and I would not be the least surprised if the originals to some games on GOG come from users private collections.

toxicTom: This is true for at least some localized versions. I guess as soon as a deal is made GOG won't publish until they can acquire an English/International version. But I'm pretty sure some German versions are donated by the users - so GOG had the licenses to publish them, but didn't have the actual localized games.