I have been looking around this forum and it mostly centers around dev items, discs and systems. Where does all of this stuff come from? Do people buy it from defunct developing companies? Are there people inside of these companies that steal the stuff and sell it? Thanks.
Yes to both. Additionally, sometimes devlopers just throw things out. One piece in my collection was actually sold to me through a third party of sorts by a developer. Things also work their way into the wild through journalists and magazines.
AFAIK Taking someones rubbish without their permission is still classed as stealing in the uk. You're not allowed to take stuff out of skips etc. smf
Seriously? what about people going through the bins looking for documents, there has to be some law against it.
Yeah, however I think there is a world of a difference between someone trawling through garbage of a sensitive nature looking to commit fraud with personals details, and someone perhaps lifting an old stereo, chair, desk or development kit out a skip! Bin diving is an ancient tradition and there's a bit of an art to it lol Anyway, it's a mute point - regardless of where or how the material is obtained it is actually illegal. The best thing is to be pretty reasonable and sensible. A quiet collector who then refuses to share sensitive data is probably exactly the type of people the manufacturer is glad their "strays" land with rather than someone determined to do damage.
Thats why you need to shread that stuff before throwing it out. I actually shread it then throw it in a recycling bin. I believe the police use this fact to their advantage whenever possible as well, but I'm no expert on actions of law enforcement.
In the US there's no law about taking things out of a trash can (at least, that I'm aware of). What they can get you for is tresspassing on private property if that's require to get to the trashcan/dumpster/whatever. But, eventually that trashcan's contents will end up in the city dump (or maybe recycling), and you can definitely take all you want from there. And that's the reason why sensitive material should always be destroyed in some fashion before throwing it away... Anyone can get to it once it's in the trash.
I think it was well described as making it's way into the "Wild". You'd be surprised what's landed on my lap out of pure blunder and neglect.......
When I left a company in 2001 I took a DC Katana with me (of course I asked). The other one, I suspected that someone would have requested it. A few months later I heard that it was just thrown away as is.
I remember asking you if Evil Twin would come out ;-) BTW did you manage to buy that Game Gear Barbie proto?
