Re: Announcement: STM 0.85r available

[jimn8@netcom.com (Jim Nitchals)]

bazyar@netcom.com (Jawaid Bazyar) writes:

>mlilback@seas.gwu.edu (Mark J. Lilback) writes:

>>Not necessarily. Software liscence argreements say you have the right to
>>have one copy running on a machine. My old Apple IIe is sitting in a box
>>at my parents house. I don't see why it would be illegal for me to get a
>>copy of the software I purchased for my Apple IIe so I can run it on my
>>mac. I'll only be using one copy of the sotware at a time.

>  You, maybe. The vast majority of others who are grabbing that software?
>Not likely.

Sit tight, please.  This is a long reply because there's a serious
implication being made, and it should be addressed fully.

The intent of the incoming folder, as I understand it, is to provide
software for testing purposes only of the STM emulator.  It wasn't
put there for the convenience of pirates, nor for a free batch of
games for STM users to run.

I have been personally working very hard to acquire rights to old
commercial Apple II software for use in conjunction with STM.  While
it may not be obvious, rights have *already* been acquired to many
of the programs already in /incoming, and a number that aren't.

>  Time to drop a letter to Atari.

Please do.  Atari may own trademarks re. Epyx's Temple of Apshai series,
and I have acquired rights from the original author for those titles
pending approval from whoever among the Atari / Epyx confusion now
owns the trademarks.  The author would like to know for his own
peace of mind, too.

And I'd love to discuss licensing of any of their other Apple II
products, none of which are generating revenue for Atari anymore.

If you're going to make an effort to get Kevin into trouble, you
may as well kill two birds with one stone.  But please read on
before deciding what to do:

I have personally spoken to over a dozen programmers whose programs
are represented in the /incoming directory, which as I again emphasize
is there for testing the emulator, and not one felt there was any
substantial value left in the products.  Nor had a single author
received any royalties or other income from those titles for years.
Without exception, EVERY SINGLE author with rights to his programs
granted those rights for use with a commercial version of STM,
although in some cases the publisher still has rights that need
to be addressed further.

The mid 1980's were a rough time for most Apple II authors...
Many companies went bankrupt, cheated the authors out of royalties,
were bought out, or simply stopped marketing the programs and left
the authors without a vital source of income.

As a result of Kevin's efforts with STM, many of those authors stand
a chance of receiving substantial royalties again in conjunction with
a commercial release of STM bundled with old Apple II products.

 Perhaps to Mark Turmell, royalties on Sneakers won't matter since
he's now the author of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam (yes, really.)  But
to Jay Zimmerman, who's manager of a coffee shop in Idaho, the
royalties from Microwave might come in handy.  Providing nobody
goes out of their way to throw up roadblocks in the meantime.

Apple II owners would benefit, too, from availability of a large
library of affordable, legally licensed software.

FYI, I'd be surprised if Atari still owned clear title to home versions
of Robotron, which was a Williams arcade product to begin with.  Many
such agreements automatically expire when marketing efforts have
stopped, although I cannot speak for the relationship between
Williams and Atari on this point.

Last but not least, if you're going to give anyone grief over this,
don't give me any.  My only contributions to this project have
been on *BEHALF* of the programmers and companies you're acting
concerned about.  I haven't personally uploaded anything to /incoming.

Kevin's efforts stand an excellent chance of breathing new life
into those old programs.  Please don't go out of your way to
stop the process at this point, and deprive those programmers
of new royalties, or the simple joy of seeing their old games
again.  Some of the authors no longer even own an Apple II and
they all expressed a strong desire to see their old games one
more time, even if running under emulation on a Mac.

- Jim Nitchals
Author of Asteroid Field, Star Thief, Bug Attack, and Microwave by
Cavalier Computer; port programmer for Apple II versions of Archon and
Archon II:Adept for Electronic Arts.

-- 
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  "A lot of people say there's too much personal freedom.  When
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          - President Clinton as quoted on MTV, April 19, 1994