RE: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)

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RE: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)


(Quake refute is below)
At 07:59 AM 11/16/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Nobody said distributing the ROM for programming purposes was legal. They
>said making a copy of your own ROM for the purposes of programming is legal.

I agree.  However, I have two objections.  The first is that you didn't
define your pronouns.  The second is that you say "Nobody said distributing
the ROM for _programming purposes_ was legal."  Although I agree with THAT
statement, it completely ignores the fact that I am arguing about
"programming research" while you are on a totally different subject.

Again I challenge:  Prove me wrong.

>Dave
>
>At 08:15 AM 11/16/98 +0100, you wrote:
>>
>>On Mon, 16 Nov 1998, Thomas J. Hruska wrote:
>>> >Uh, WRONG!  Distributing the ROM cannot be legal under any circumstances.
>>> 
>>> You can't just make a statement like this and leave us hanging.  Explain
>>> these "circumstances" that you speak of.  I specified the type of research
>>> that all of us programmers are doing, which makes the ROM legal to have.
>>> Distributing the ROM is therefore legal since everyone must be able to
>>> prove that the research that the programmers did is really true.  So,
>>> either end of the use of the ROM is legal under copyright law.  Now, tell
>>> me YOUR defense.
>>
>>So distributing Quake, for instance, is also legal if you're researching
>>about 3D game engines...?

Let us look at this from a different light first.  TI ROM images have
unlimited applications that they can be used for.  Nearly all of these
applications are research based (only people who are using it for games are
the exception).  How else would programmers be able to write ASM programs
for their TI calculator without doing research on the ROM first?  How would
others prove one programmer's research for their program without
researching it for themselves?  Now, even the program has to be researched!
 These programs have to be researched to be matched against the ROM by
testing them.  The list goes on and on in the different ways that ROM
images are used for research purposes.

Now, let me return to Quake.  How is someone going to research 3D game
engines by playing a game?  Playing games for research purposes is never
going to hold water in court.  However, if the person is REALLY going to
research Quake's 3D Engine (without using it for gaming purposes), then not
even the Supreme Court can stand up to that since they made the copyright
law the way it is.

So, Quake only has *maybe* 2 research purposes at the most.  The TI ROM
image has _unlimited_ research purposes.

Again:  Prove me wrong!

>>-- 
>>Real name..: Jimmy Mårdell
>>E-mail.....: yarin@acc.umu.se
>>Homepage...: http://www.acc.umu.se/~yarin/


                 Thomas J. Hruska -- thruska@tir.com
Shining Light Productions -- "Meeting the needs of fellow programmers"
         http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/8504
                    http://shinelight.home.ml.org
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