Re: A2 Trade/Swap ... site ...

[CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

On Thu, 06 Jul 2000 06:09:18 GMT, bobryan9@my-deja.com wrote:

>Software is software.  It can be source code on paper, on disk, on ROM.
>
>Should in your opinion!  Many people here seem to have an opinion that
>you "should be able to download old unsupported software".  Apple
>Computer Inc. did not supply you with the ROM code on disk.  I'm sure
>there is a law somewhere that says you can't transfer it (ROM) to a
>different medium.

Making backups of software on other media has been approved, if I'm
not mistaken.  Otherwise you couldn't make backups of a 5.25" disk on
a 3.5" disk, hard drive or CD-ROM.  If you can backup the contents of
a 5.25" disk in a ROM chip, why shouldn't you be able to back up the
contents of a ROM chip on a 5.25" disk?

However, like I said, I didn't think there had been any precedent set
for this but apparently there has.  I believe Frank Townsend has been
posting relevant URLs.

>I'd like to point out that there is no such thing as "grey-area".  That
>is a term people made up to justify disregarding copyright notices on
>software. Most, if not all, software being made available under the term
>"grey-area" is being illegally distributed.
>
>(borrowed from Message-ID: <3957a8a3.251734666@news>, by Jeff Blakeney)

If I'm thinking of the correct message then you are paraphrasing my
statement and not borrowing or quoting a statement by me.  In that
post I believe I was talking about the term "abandonware".  I stand by
that statement because there is no such thing.  Even abandoned
software titles, unless explicitly released from their copyright, are
still protected by their copyright.

When talking about gray (or grey, I have no idea which spelling should
be used here) areas, we are simply talking about situations where the
law isn't 100% clear.  It seems that the law is getting clearer
concerning back ups of ROM code, though.

>prec�e�dent (prs-dnt)
>n.
>An act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with
>subsequent similar instances.
>
>(Thats from dictionary.com)
>
>Precedent:  Other computer newsgroups that don't have as much noise as
>this one due to the downloading of old software.

Okay, perhaps I should have been more explicit.  I was talking about
legal precedent.  Just because there are newsgroups in existence that
don't have discussions about illegal distribution of copyrighted works
doesn't mean that doing so is legal.

>Perhaps.  But if they use the ROM image, I find it highly unlikely.

None of the emulators I have seen come with the ROM image (with the
exception of a really old one called SIMIIE but it apparently didn't
use Apple's ROM).  The user of the emulator must make an image from a
machine that they own.  As we have been discussing, it looks like this
is a legal use of the ROM code.

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