Re: Programming the Apple IIe via the cassette in

[Eric Smith <eric-no-spam-for-me@brouhaha.com>]

>> somehow keep getting sidetracked... perhaps I'm just worried about what
>> Apple's lawyers would do to me ;-)

"Bill Garber" <willy46pa@comcast.net> writes:
> Having had enough of hearing about Apple Corporation's lawyers,
> let me say this. If they really cared, they would still be selling their
> wares and supporting the Apple II line. Geez, just go ahead and do
> it. They don't care, trust me.

You apparently don't understand lawyers or business.

Lawyers are paid to care.  They do care, because that's how they make
money.  But they aren't going to send out a Cease and Desist letter
unless they notice, and they're not being paid to sniff around Usenet
groups looking for people to pounce on.  However, if something is
brought to their attention, you can believe that a C&D will be sent.

This also has *nothing* to do with whether the vendor cares enough to
continue making the product.  That decision is based on how much profit
it generates.  Sure, they could sell a few thousand new Apple II
computers every year if they brought it back.  But for the same
resources that would require, they can build new products instead, that
will sell hundreds of thousands of units and thus bring in a profit
rather than a loss.  It's a simple matter of ROI (Return On Investment).
The fact that you *could* sell something doesn't mean that you would
make any money on it, or that you wouldn't make more money doing
something else instead.

The real problem is that copyright law as it currently exists in the
US fails in its mission "To promote the Progress of Science and useful
Arts", in that the copyright term is so long that most works will no
longer exist by the time they are elgible to enter the public domain.
And thanks to the brain-damaged Supreme Court decision in the Eldred
case, Congress can continue to extend the term of copyright indefinitely
(and even retroactively).