Subject: Are classic games "hardware"? (was Re: [stella] Piracy) From: "Mike St. Clair" <mstclair@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:49:58 -0500 (EST) |
On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, John Saeger wrote: > >Right again. The attourney said that software copyright is not reduced or > >negated no matter what medium they are published in, and whether the roms > >are burned or fabricated with the software content is not relevant! > >Software on chips is just as protected as that on disk or any other media! > > > Except that the game cartridges are hardware, not software. Software is > copied to a re-writeable medium for execution. Hence the "soft" in > software. This is not the case with the game cartridges. It may be that the > "firmware" in the game cartridges are considered to be software by law but I > don't know that. All I know is that I ran across a passage in a book which > indicated that certain "designs in silicon" i.e. mask works, were granted a > shorter period of copyright protection than traditional software. And > furthermore the roms in the game cartridges are often if not usually, in > mass-production at least, programmed with a "mask." I know I must seem > brain-dead to wonder if the game cartridges fall into this category. The cartridge is hardware which *contains* software, and software is software. Before long we might have books, movies, and music on *chip* instead of disk or tape. Those works will not lose their copyrights 10 years after being cast in silicon, I guarantee it. > And, I realize that to some people, this is an emotional issue. The human > spirit, creativity and all. And many people have definite opinions about > what they think the law SHOULD be. I'm just trying to find out if anyone > knows what the law actually is. I'm personally still not sure it's really > so clear. I know IBM sued the clone makers in the early days for copying > roms, but it was within 5 years. I don't know of anyone doing anything > similar over roms this long after the fact. I see these rom images all over > the place. If it was really illegal, why doesn't anyone do anything about > it? Activision could certainly afford to do something. I can't help but > think that MAYBE the conventional wisdom is wrong. Maybe nothing CAN be > done. Maybe it's legal. I don't know. I'm just trying to understand. I'm > not trying to promote or "rationalize" piracy. My comments regarding "rationalization" were not directed at you, you aren't one of the people I've seen repeatedly trying to justify shanghai-ing someone else's work, particularly for profit, in the last few months. No offense intended. ***Mike St. Clair***mstclair@xxxxxxxxx***irc:SaintMick*** -- Stella list is Administered by krishna@xxxxxxxxxxxx <Glenn Saunders> Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/ Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/stella.html +-shameless plugs-------------------------------------------------------+ | Stella documentary at http://www.primenet.com/~krishna | | Nick's VCS links via http://www.primenet.com/~nickb/atariprg.htm | | Write the best game, win framed autographs of famous Atari alumni!! | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Current Thread |
---|
|
<- Previous | Index | Next -> |
---|---|---|
Re: [stella] Piracy -- copyrights e, Glenn Saunders | Thread | Re: [stella] Piracy -- copyrights e, John Saeger |
[stella] Latest version of my game, A. | Date | Re: [stella] ALIEN, Chris Cracknell |
Month |