Re: Open letter to Apple ][ hackers Re: Official and LEGAL ways to emulate Apple II?

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

"Bryan Villados" <news003@macgeek.org> writes:
> I seem to a problem with this logic. If you bought an Apple II+, which came
> with DOS 3.3, based on what some people are saying, each owner would then
> own TWO legal licenses of the ROM???? Even if it's legally correct, I doubt
> that's what Apple had in mind.

If Apple didn't have it in mind, they shouldn't have put the ROM image on
the floppy disk, or they shouldn't have sold it.

The fact is that if you buy an Apple II+ and a DOS 3.3 (original), you
now have two legitimate, licensed copies of the ROM code.  The same
person owning both items doesn't somehow magically make the license of
one of them less legitmate.

How Apple intended you to use the copy on the DOS 3.3 disk is irrelevant,
due to the doctrine of first sale.  The owner of a copyrighted work in
general can't control how you use that work once you purchase it.  They
can only use copyright law to prevent you from making original copies,
and they can't even completely prevent that since some copying falls
under "fair use".