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

[bobryan9@my-deja.com]

In article <3963fbf7.121835474@news>,
  CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney) wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Jul 2000 00:20:10 GMT, bobryan9@my-deja.com wrote:
>
> >Comments are very welcome!  Shall you tell the readers that it's okay
> >to copy ROM images and the entire hardware design of the Apple II (in
> >software)?
>
> Like I've said in the past, ROM is software stored in a chip rather
> than on disk and you are allowed to make a backup of your disk
> software so the same should be true for ROM software.

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.

> However, this
> is a gray area

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)


>as I don't think this has ever been checked into or had
> any precedents set.

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.


> As to the copying of the Apple II's hardware design, the emulator
> authors are using the publically available knowledge about how the
> Apple II works to write their emulator.  As far as I know, they are
> not reverse engineering or doing anything else that could be
> considered illegal in creating their emulation software.
>

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


Bob


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