300 Baud Magazine was a retro computing focused magazine that was produced from January 2010 to December 2010. William Dale Goodfellow attempted to gather a number of retro hobby writers together and managed to produce three issues of the magazine prior to the magazine ceasing publication.
| January 2010 | May 2010 | December 2010? | |||
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Introduction
FINDERS KEEPERS I know its theft, I just don’t care!
We may as well tackle this one straight off the bat. To state the case; to make the point; to clarify the sentiment; to justify our indifference to Intellectual property rights…
Actually lets rewind a little bit on that last part.
Intellectual property rights in the digital age is a hot topic, and as both camps have been energised by their respective successes in the courts of various countries around the world, its fair to say this battle has a few years left to run. But we are not really talking about that, or rather we are, but it doesn’t feel that way.
Let me be honest here, if I have an old machine and it needs old software I think it perfectly acceptable tofinditanduseitforfree,aslongasitisnot available anymore as a commercial application. That’s not to say the owner does not have rights over the work, it is just that I don’t actually care.
Harsh words – but true; in that I think some things trump the idea of ownership, and that is when the thing in question, the private property has a greater value to the larger community than to the individual. And that the owner has shown no interest in the work, of maintaining it, developing it or promoting their creative talents.
When considering the perishable nature of most of the media that we need to use in our old machines,
we have, I would state, a moral right to duplicate and distribute these historical works. I would also extend this to cover books and magazines, the recognised ephemera of all ages.
The people and the skills needed to start from scratch on a Z80 and a 6502 are disappearing as each year passes. Individuals who, while having a passion, were also motivated by the ability to make a living and pay their bills; largely these people are gone. There are fewer and fewer people who are able, let alone willing, to devote such time to what can only really be a hobby or a personal passion.
Simply put, if we are not creating more, we must preserve what we have.
It is with this statement that I will close by saying that if we are successful with this publication, we will demonstrate not only the fun things that people are currently doing with old retro computers, but also duplicating other peoples original work from that age; be that articles, art work or programs.
It’s all fair game.
I, of course, have no desire to impinge upon someone’s ability to make a living, but if the work seems abandoned, if it is many decades old, then for me this is open for free use. If you have old media, then copy it and distribute it, but make sure you do it for free. If you have old magazines, scan them and upload them. The rest of you, gather these files and populate the web with copies and download sites.
300 Baud Magazine Production Info
1 Yester Place, Haddington
East Lothian, Scotland, UK, EH41 3BE www.300baudmagazine.com
Magazine Staff
Editor William Dale Goodfellow
Art Director Simon D. Williams
Illustration Atticus Pamer
Layout Simon Williams
Production by LD8 Media Design
URL www.ld8.ca
Printed in Canada
