Re: Mimic Spartan(s) for me!

["Sheldon Simms" <sheldon@semanticedge.com>]

Im Artikel <3b049efd.271711122@news1.on.sympatico.ca> schrieb "Jeff
Blakeney" <CUTjefbla@bconnex.net>:

> On Wed, 16 May 2001 12:43:26 +0200, "Sheldon Simms"
> <sheldon@semanticedge.com> wrote:
> 
>>Hmm... As Michael J. Mahon has already pointed out, in the web site
>>mentioned by Ernest
>>(www.applefritter.com/appleclones/spartan/index.html) A certain Brent
>>Marykuca (brentm@telus.net), said to be the lead software developer for
>>the Spartan admits that
>>
>>   The software features of the Spartan included a compatible Applesoft
>>   BASIC -- very compatible, since it was created by disassembling the
>>   binary from the Applesoft ROM and reordering assembly level
>>   instructions...
>>
>>In other words, Jeff, you are in possession of pirated software.
>>
>>I am interested to hear how you plan to handle this Jeff. Will you be
>>consistent with your own arguments and destroy your Spartan (or least
>>the rom chip), or will you be a hypocrite? Please inform.
> 
> So, the way I plan to handle it is to continue using it just like I
> always have.  (Which is VERY infrequently, by the way. :)

In other words, you are a hypocrite, like I thought.

> If it were an exact copy of [Appleworks], I would indeed remove it.
> Mind you, if it were an exact copy, I could just [apply the RamWorks
> patch to it and it would] work. :-)
> 
> However, it is NOT an exact copy.  It may be a derived work ...
> Yet, even if it were proven that the [copy] was illegally
> created, the chance of there being a recall on the [copy] is
> very small and unless they recall them, I am legally allowed to continue
> using the [copy] I have.  I have heard of people running across [copies
> of copyrighted software] that [the copyright holder] had won law suits
> against and stopped production of but the ones that were already out
> there stayed out there.  Then there is the RocketChip versus the
> ZipChip. The RocketChip was put out of production due to patent
> infringement but the ones that were already sold are still legally out there.
> 
> I'm sure there is more to the story of the creation of the [hacked copy
> of Appleworks] other than "dissassebling [Appleworks] and reordering
> assembly level instructions".  There is also [Timeout Ultramacros]
> to think of too.
> 
> --
>  Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II Unversity on A2Central.com

What is happening here is that somebody made an illegal derivative of
the Apple II ROM and sold it. You now possess a copy of this ROM, and
you say it's ok to keep it because it was sold and somebody bought it.
You didn't copy the ROM, you just happen to have a product with illegally
copied software. As long as the product isn't recalled it's ok.

Well it sounds to me, then, that if I download an sector-edited copy of
Appleworks from some web page, then I haven't done anything wrong.
Some other loser illegally made a derivative work of Appleworks, and I
just happen to have acquired a copy of it. As long as the derivative work
isn't recalled it's ok. Even if Apple sues the guy who made the hacked
Appleworks and wins, it's ok for me to keep it. Right? Or do I have to
actually pay the pirate scum for the hacked Appleworks in order to make
it ok?

-- 
sheldon@semanticedge.com  "The term (denotation t) denotes the object denoted
                           by the object denoted by t." -- KIF