Re: [stella] Re: 2600's TIA & the TV Boy

[Kevin Horton <khorton@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:46 AM 8/20/01 -0700, you wrote:

Cuttle Cart.  It's copyright that will kill you.  The DMCA has made 
everything horrible, throwing out many of the former restrictions on what 
could be

Yeah, unfortunately that POS got passed under the noses of everyone that 
mattered.  The US public be damned.  Fortunately, it looks like the DMCA is 
showing its true colours now and it may be found unconstitutional (which it 
is).  <kicks soapbox away>

information rather than doing a ground up recreation.  Everything now 
requires clean room reverse engineering, where one team breaks something 
down, then provides a flow chart of the operation that another team 
recreates everything from - having never had access to the original.

Even THIS won't cut it when it comes to <cough> "content protection".  Any 
tampering with that results in instant law breaking... even if I just wanna 
watch a DVD I own in Linux, or rip this music CD I bought so I can listen 
to it on my Rio.  <kicks soapbox away again>


Since you've done so much with the TIA, and are about to receive chip masks 
/ schematics for the chip, you wouldn't have much defense.  I know there 
used to be special rules governing chip masks specifically, and that there 
are no valid patents on the VCS because the Coleco case established that 
fact, but I don't know how well you'd fare in the copyright arena.

Yeah I was wondering about this... Also, I don't think the DMCA applies to 
the TIA since I don't think its laws are retroactive.  (correct me if I'm 
wrong)

> It's definitely something to consider, especially if you had any 
> commercial ventures in mind, like a portable VCS, etc.

Naaah.  I highly doubt there's any commercial potential (as in > 1000 units 
made) for this stuff... It's just too high cost (parts, time, etc) and most 
people want the latest-greatest stuff like GBA and wouldn't give a bit of 
notice to a new 2600 console.

It's more a mission of fun for me, and learning new skills that I can put 
to use elsewhere.


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