The best (and probably the only effective) way to prevent distribution
of forged images are signing them with GnuPG, or providing a list of
SHA-1 (or better, MD5 can be forged too easily) checksums of known
good images. Otherwise, anyone can tamper with images, even with a
simple hex editor.
Also I hadn't received your second message when I replied to the
first. Some of my points still stand though.
~~~~
In this field of data preservation, the only way we'll actually be
able to get things done successfully and actually preserve the most
history is by working together. Sure this might cut into the profits
of some, but if the goal is profits (or even amassing a large private
collection), then you're in the wrong business.
Concerning SPS, I think the fact that only game dumps are accepting is
rather telling. There is a load of software, for Amiga and other
platforms, which is at least as important to preserve. The other day I
talked to a former Amiga game developer, who mentioned that Digi-Paint
was used heavily in game development. I managed to locate a copy, but
it appears that software like this, which may be important to play
around with art assets included in games, does not fall into the kind
of materials that SPS is interested in.
I may be wrong about this, but in regards to preserving this stuff,
personally I'd trust an open, helpful group like BitSavers much more
than a private group interested in selling their products.
(I'm including CTA here: yes, you may need to know what you're doing,
but as a developer, tinkerer, and one interested in
reverse-engineering, I'm sure I'd be able to figure out how to use
such complicated software.)
--Dave
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 12, 2012, at 6:00 PM, "Christian Bartsch | KryoFlux Ltd."
<cb at kryoflux.com> wrote:
No, the problem is the redefinition of Derivative
Works to include any
images produced by the device using the KF binary software
distribution. Since the binary blob falls under this license, this
means all IPFs (and STREAM dumps too) that were dumped with the KF.
Although not intentional, this is the heritage of the library when there was nothing else
to be covered. We don't claim ownership in any data dumped with KryoFlux, and this
will be addressed in the next release. For now all I can offer is that people in doubt
will get written (email) confirmation. This applies to all data ever read with the unit.
Thanks for pointing this out.
If all you wanted to do is prevent compilation
CDs of IPFs,
prohibiting the IPF library from being redistributed should have been
enough. Such a prohibition is in the licenses. I don't see why such a
redefinition of derivative works, and restriction on what you can do
with these "derivative works", was ever necessary.
There was a time when such companies would just feed whatever they could into extended
ADFs, which would have caused more trouble than fun. Again, this was when the Amiga was
still in the commercial marketplace and the idea was to stop people from forging things.