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

Subject: RE: [stella] Are 7800 demos legal???
From: slapdash@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Russ Perry Jr)
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 09:45:42 -0600
At 2:36 AM 11/24/99, John Saeger wrote:
>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.

Ah, here's the rub...

You're right -- you have every right to use that code while designing your
game.  However, posting that part of the source/image, or selling games
including it would NOT be legal, in my opinion.  Tricky distinction.

>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.  ;-)

Well, as someone else suggested, you never know if they might throw up
their hands and say "do what thou wilst".

>> 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?

Unfortunately not.  You MIGHT check into http://www.icwhen.com, around 1993?
on the history pages, and see if it at least has a mention of it.

>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.

There's a problem with that too...  The originator has a copyright regardless,
but they'd have a hell of a time proving it.

Again, I should point out that I'm trying to nitpick the letter of the law
as I know it, not suggest a course of action.  As for me, I'd rather see
some new games, and since we're talking about obsolete systems here, I
think (perhaps Robin Hood style) that there should be no problem sending
out this information -- that doesn't mean there WON'T be problems, however
unlikely.  That's why I point out what I can, and let you decide.

>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.  ;-)

RetroBandits, all of us...

//*================================================================++
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||  847-952-9729    slapdash@xxxxxxxxxxxx    VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR!  ||
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