Re: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)
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Re: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)
I would have to agree with Bryan on this, though there are two sides to it
(as with lots of stuff, really). Maybe an example is best.
Let's look at the programmer Matthew Shepcar (SCaBBy). He only owns a TI-86
(at least as of the last time I talked to him). Now, he wrote the awsome
game Vertigo for the TI-86 and ported it to the 82, 83 and 85. I would
assume that he used an emualtor and a ROM he got from someone else to test
it on these other calcualtors (or he could have borrowed them from someone
else, which is essentially what copying the rom is, it is just much more
convient [enough with the legal stuff about that, I know NO ONE uses their
calc 24/7, you could conceivable share a calc to program like that]). If he
could not have gotten a ROM image, he would have had to buy the calcs. But
would he have? Of course not, not for just programming a game (that would
be distributed for free). Therefore, TI did _NOT_ lose any money. However,
if someone saw me playing Vertigo on my 86 and I told them they could get it
for an 82 or 83 (which are $40 cheaper than a 86 which makes a big
difference to some people and used by most math classes instead of the 86),
then it might have convinced them to buy an 83 whereas they would have
settled for a 30X or whatever. So that made TI some money that they would
have lost otherwise.
As you can see, you can take either side from the above example. It all
depends on how you look at it. I don't see why TI would care. Having a
copy of the ROM is not going to help a competing company to write a ROM for
a calcualtor (and if it was, they could simply dump it themselves). No one
is going to use the emulator for a calculator instead of buying it (or if
they were, then they wouldn't have bought it anyway, they would buy
something like Derive or settle for the Windows Calculator [which,
incidentally, is much quicker for hex, binary and decimal conversions than
even the actual 86...not to mention how long it would take to use the
emulator for it]). It only helps programmers write games for the calc that
they otherwise wouldn't have. And games sell calculators!
-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan Rabeler <brabeler@ticalc.org>
To: assembly-86@lists.ticalc.org <assembly-86@lists.ticalc.org>
Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 4:32 PM
Subject: Re: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)
>
>Well, distributing ROMs could potientally cut into TI's sale of
>calculators because people (espically programmers) will use the free ROM
>instead of buying the calculator.
>
>--
>Bryan Rabeler <brabeler@ticalc.org>
> File Archives, News, Features, and HTML
> the ticalc.org project - http://www.ticalc.org/
>
>On Tue, 17 Nov 1998, Cassady Roop wrote:
>
>>
>> > Paranoid I am not. Cautious I am. TI is just waiting for ticalc,
>> > ti-files, or dimension-ti to mess up. The second that such an error is
>> > made, TI will begin the legal process. TI would love to shut down
every
>> > last major site and if we can defend our position and win, TI will
leave us
>> > alone, forever.
>>
>>
>> I don't think that they are like some evil organization just biding
>> their time before maliciously striking down all sites that have used or
>> provide their ROM. Although they of course don't outwardly admit it, I
>> don't think they mind THAT much as long as you don't turn around and
>> start selling the ROM. After all, assembly programmers buy
>> calculators. They don't want to alienate their customers. Maybe they
>> are afraid that we'll all turn Hewlett-Packard...
>>
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