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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-10-31
|  Re: Copyright protection exemptions for obsolete video games
Crown, this applies only to people actually IN the United States. Germans and Italians and Hungarians and Englishmen are all subject to their local laws.
The exceptions as notated by the US Copyright office allow reverse-engineering in order to make the software useable on more current machines, provided that the original software is on an obsolete format (obsolete defined as not easily or readily accessible). A second exception is granted for software that requires a 'dongle' (common on C64 productivity software) and the 'dongle' is no longer operable and a replacement cannot be obtained.
Copyright law allows these exceptions only to persons who own the software in question. Posting the software on the Internet for download is still a grey area, as technically it is against the law to give a copy to someone who doesn't own it -- but I can let someone who has a bad original download a working copy.
Webmaster, www.cbm264.com
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Posted By
Spector
on 2003-10-31
| Re: Copyright protection exemptions for obsolete video games
Does this mean that we can expect to see MAME ROMs being freely available on the internet again like they were 3 years ago?
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2003-10-31
| Re: Copyright protection exemptions for obsolete video games
ROMs are a different story. A ROM has to be inserted into the actual machine, as opposed to a disk or a tape that is read by an accessory device.
If your machine cannot read your ROM then you have a defective machine or ROM chip, and would need to repair your machine or seek a new ROM. In this case you would seek someone who can copy their ROM onto an EPROM, not download a ROM for an emulator.
The execptions posted by the US Copyright Office do not address emulators.
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