Official and LEGAL ways to emulate Apple II?

[J. Random Luser <postmaster@127.0.0.1>]

I am a tech support person at a K-12 public school, and I would like
to continue to have Apple II software available for staff and
students. (Yes, even now, some schools are STILL holding onto their
15-20 year old Apple II hardware. Hey, I even have two Digicard
networks running yet.)

Even though most of the word processing and business software is
horribly out of date, the "drill and practice" type games for learning
math, typing, and reading have not lost their value to elementary
teachers, and the teachers would still like to have access to the
software.


However, it is generally not feasible to continue using Apple II
hardware. The hardware takes up space that could be better used by
even a "low-end" $500 1gHz system -- with more than 1000 times the
speed and capability of the original Apple IIe.

Additionally, I have pressure from the school superintendent to get
rid of the Apples simply for "image" reasons. We want to appear to the
public to be current and up-to-date, and to have an attractive image
to potential new teaching staff. How can you do that when you've got
totally obsolete Apple II hardware (some of it now nearly 20 years
old) sitting in classrooms?


At this point, emulation seems to be the proper path to go. I have
used the Janzer-Schmidt version of AppleWin and like it a lot. I have
also converted some 150 old MECC floppies into disk images, put them
on a Netware server, and even have them appearing in an individual
computer's Start Menu, direct from the server. Just go to the Start
menu, select the program, and it instantly loads in AppleWin.
Everything is working great!

Except there is one problem. I cannot determine how we can officially
and legally use the Apple IIe ROM with the emulator. I do not want to
do this "on the sly". I want to be able to do this in a fully public
manner that can be shared with other schools and is looked on by Apple
as being acceptable to them. We are after all a public institution and
as such we should be doing things in a fully legal and proper manner. 

I do not want to try and do this "secretly" and then later have all
the effort wasted if Apple learns what's going on and tries to sue or
issue "cease and desist" letters to schools, telling them to stop
using "unlicensed" Apple II emulation in schools. 


So far, the fully proper route of getting a license to the ROM-code
from Apple has failed. I hunted around, calling various Apple
corporate numbers, until I found a special email address for the
"Intellectual Property Law" department at Apple.

I sent them a number of anonymous email requests for information on
how to get a free or low-cost license for the Apple IIe ROM-code for
K-12 schol use, and got this response back from one of their lawyers:

>  Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:54:05 -0700
>  Subject: Re: status update? (Re: Apple II ROM)
>  
>  Thank you for your correspondence dated Fri, 25 Apr 2003, which has
>  been forwarded to me for response.
>  
>  At this time Apple has no interest in releasing Apple II ROM code
>  for additional use.  While we appreciate your interest and support
>  of Apple, we ask that you respect this policy.
>  
>  Thank you for contacting Apple with your question.
>  
>  Very truly yours,
>  APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
>  
>  Mark Aaker
>  Attorney
>  Apple Law Department

So they won't do licensing directly. Is there any "indirect" licensing
available? Are there any emulators out there that I can buy that
include the ROM-code and are officially blessed by Apple to include
the ROM-code with their emulator?


I have also heard a claim that you can emulate as long as you own the
original machine you are emulating. I have no idea if this is true, or
if it's just a made-up concept that has no real legal bearing. Has
this ever been tested in court? (Can you point me to any web info
relating to this?)

How far does this concept go? Must you retain a fully functional
machine, or is it enough to just own the ROMs from the machine? Could
I pull the ROMs, put them in electrostatic-safe foam, and discard the
rest of the computer?

Must you own the exact machine, or is it okay to have the ROMs from a
newer generation of the computer line and emulate an older version? At
this school I am trying to upgrade to emulation, we have 25 Apple IIgs
computers in storage. But I want to use AppleWin, not a IIgs emulator.
Is it okay to keep the IIgs ROMs around as legal "proof" I can use the
IIe emulator?


Another question is how the costs of "past purchases" factors into
this. The school where I work has likely bought more than a hundred
Apple IIe/IIgs computers in years past. Even if we have now discarded
the actual hardware, it seems like all that money spent should be able
to count for something now.

In my opinion, we should still be able to use an emulated Apple IIe
even if we discarded the hardware, because we already paid Apple once
to use the ROM in that hardware. We shouldn't need to pay them again
to be able to emulate up to as many Apple II computers as we had
originally purchased some 10-20 years ago.


If anyone knows the real, legal facts surrounding these issues, I'd
appreciate some help.