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***
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