> I was talking about prototype games in the United States. If you want to bring in all > games (not the prototype / tax write off) and Japan (which might as well be a > different planet) sending a C&D then you break the conversation by jumping out of the > scope of the argument. > > But nobody has been sued over a prototype rom dump. Nobody has probably been sued > over any dump ever.
Well every situation is different.
You saw the speed at which Danger Express was retracted and all traces of the ROM ever being posted vanished from the internet (even sites that wouldn't usually remove files/posts) and removed from the MAME source code. That was strange even for me to see, there must have been more to that than the forum post saying "please don't, or you won't get anything else" Either that or sites were strangely cooperative or just blindly followed it being removed from MAME.
Mamedev STILL won't add the Dragon's Lair CHD either, for fear of legal action apparently.
and I hear some people won't dump the NGDev Team stuff for similar reasons / excuses (even if they've said / done nothing about Last Hope being dumped, or their DC stuff being dumped) (if anything only having Last Hope dumped is about the most damaging thing that could happen to their reputation to be honest, it's an absolutely terrible game that only gets ridiculed)
everybody has their own reasons, either genuine or completely made up in their own head...