[Coco] HWGA (was) Coco games copyright

[James Hrubik]

Why am I waiting with bated breath, holding my finger over the DELETE  
key...

Maybe each newbie should get an email from Dennis with something to  
the effect that discussions of religion, politics, and copyrights  
should be avoided because they are equally likely to start flame wars.

(Sorry, Joel.  I know you just wanted to help the guy, but I can't  
help thinking you were just trolled.)

On Feb 11, 2009, at Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - 1:51 PM, Joel Ewy  
wrote:

> Ben Jimenez wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> I was thinking of converting some Coco games over to a new  
>> platform, but was wondering what the copyright was on them now?
>>
>> --
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>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>>
> Copyright is forever.  Well, not quite forever.  It's the life of the
> author plus 70 years plus the amount of time since Walt Disney  
> died, or
> something like that.
>
> Seriously, it isn't like patents, which expire in 17 years.
>
> There are a number of authors of CoCo games who have given permission
> for their programs to be distributed for free, often with certain
> restrictions, such as "you may not charge for a copy", etc.  This does
> not mean that they have renounced their copyright and put the programs
> in the public domain, only that they are using their copyright to
> specify the terms under which their works can be copied.
>
> L. Curtis Boyle has received permission to make some of these games
> available for download from his web site, and has documented the
> permissions he has.  Since these authors have given some enhanced
> permissions for their works, they might be amenable to discussing a
> port.  You'd just have to get in touch with them and see.
>
> Of course, if you're just talking about writing your own clone of  
> their
> original game, you don't need to get any permission or worry about
> copyright, unless you directly copy stuff from the game, or use
> trademarked names and so on.
>
> Now since these things are pretty old, and many of the old authors
> aren't involved with the CoCo anymore, you might get away with just
> appropriating it, but of course you'd be doing so at the risk that  
> they
> would take notice and threaten a lawsuit.  How likely that would be
> would probably depend on how you use it.  If you are trying to sell
> copies of a game that blatantly steals their copyrighted materials,  
> they
> would probably be more likely to take offense, or take action.  If you
> do it for fun and give it away for free, and position it as a fan  
> paying
> tribute to a great game of the past, they may not care, and might even
> feel honored that their old work has been remembered.  On the other
> hand, they might still be perfectly within their rights to sue  
> you.  Do
> so at your own risk.
>
> One other factor is that for most of these programs there's no  
> economic
> benefit to be gained from suing you.  It's not as if you're depriving
> them of any significant potential income from these 20+ years old
> programs.  But for some people it may be a matter of principle.
>
> Now, there may be some CoCo games out there that are really Open  
> Source,
> or something approximating that.  Those you should be able to port  
> more
> freely.  But for those that aren't you are either going to have to
> disassemble them or contact the original author and see if the source
> code is still around.
>
> JCE
>
>
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