Re: Roms and Emulators - Legal?

[wild_dj@mit.edu (Jake Wildstrom)]

In article <960920$cqu$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,  <lucidclarity@my-deja.com> wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I'm trying to find out whether it is legal to have or distribute Apple
>II roms of games (ie. Zork, Pirates, etc)

Zork et al. are rather a special case, as they're still an actively used
copyright of Activision. "Masterpieces of Infocom" is getting harder to find,
but it's hardly abandonware (a term with a rather tenuous meaning).

That having been said, Activision distributes Zork themselves for free
somewhere on their website.

>Are they still legally copyrighted? Can I distribute them on a website?

Yes and maybe, in that order. Someone still holds the copyrights to most
software, even if they've forgotten they have it. Copyright, unlike trademark,
is kept even if you're not vigilant in defending it.

About the website issue, it really depends a lot and this sort of topic has
traditionally started tremendous shitstorms in this group. Is it legal to do
so? No, no, a thousand times no without the permission of the copyright holder.
Are you likely to be actually called on the illegality? Again no. Is it ethical
to do so? Depends a _lot_ on your views. Again, it's a point of contention and
you're not likely to get the same answer from two people on it.

+--First Church of Briantology--Order of the Holy Quaternion--+
| A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into         |
| theorems.              -Paul Erdos                          |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|                       Jake Wildstrom                        |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+