Re: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)

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Re: A86: ROM Images (legal battle thread)


At 04:32 PM 11/17/98 -0600, you wrote:
>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.

Seems like you agree more with me since you are either showing SCaBBy's
usage of "illegal" ROM images or you are supporting his usage of
"programming research."  It seems like you are supporting "programming
research" more since you say TI will not lose money because people are
encouraged to buy better calculators than the 30X if it doesn't bust their
budget.  In this example, you are saying that it is okay to use
"programming research" to port to cheaper platforms to encourage people to
buy that calculator.  However, such a port must be tested and you are
saying that copying ROM images to research the ported program for bugs is
legal.  I agree.  I like to take it one step further and say that the ROM
image role can be reversed and porting games for all platforms above the
user's ROM type, benefits those with larger budgets.  This too is perfectly
legal since you seem to support "programming research" as long as it
doesn't hurt TI's profits.

>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!


                 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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