RE: [stella] Are 7800 demos legal???

Subject: RE: [stella] Are 7800 demos legal???
From: "John Saeger" <john@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 02:36:40 -0800
Hey guys thanks for the feedback!

Russ Perry Wrote:

> Copyright infringement is NOT legal; there are provisions for fair use,
> but I don't believe this case warrants it.

Weell, I don't know about this.  One way of looking at it is that I'm
half-owner of an authentic Atari development kit.  It seems that fair use of
such an item is that I should be able to write new games.  If ripping 4KB of
the ROM is the only way to do it, then so be it.  Maybe if Hasbro were
willing to give me encryption keys on demand to save me from wasting that
space, then that would be much better.  But something tells me that
developer support no longer exists on this machine.  ;-)

> I'm pretty sure you're thinking of Sega vs Accolade...

Yeah, I think you're right.  It's been a while since I've read the case and
I don't have a copy any more.  Do you have a copy I could read or know where
I could get one?

So I guess I don't know yet what we're going to do.  We're not criminals.
;-)  BTW, the reason I felt O.K. about scanning and posting all of the
documentation is that there wasn't a copyright notice in sight.  So I didn't
think it was up to me to ask them about it.  It's up to them to tell me if
there is a problem.  Besides, the Stella manual that we all know and love is
based on the same material.  If it's illegal, then everybody who's ever
written a 2600 game is a bootlegger of sorts.  ;-)

John


--
Archives (includes files) at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/archives/
Unsub & more at http://www.biglist.com/lists/stella/

Current Thread