[Coco] Just a thought

[Francis Swygert]

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2015 18:53:42 -0400 (EDT)
From: Al Hartman <alhartman6 at optimum.net>

> Would copyrights (on ROMs) be an issue today for a small hobbyist project<
Certainly not to whoever owns the Tandy portfolio these days (Samsung, I 
think...), but Microsoft might still care.


Better to be safe than sorry.


Apple drove us crazy about Mac 128/Mac Plus ROMs back in the early Mac 
Emulation days.==================================
I don't think even Microsoft would be "worried" about the old BASIC code, mainly because no one uses anything even similar anymore. That's not to say their legal department wouldn't issue a "cease and desist" order just because they don't want others to think they can get by with infringing copyrights. The copyright system is screwed up, in large part by Disney and other large corporations that rely on characters for a large part of their income. Copyrights should expire after a reasonable amount of time, just like patents. I don't have a problem with them remaining in effect as long as the copyrighted material is in active use in a form that is similar to the original, with no renewal needed, just proof that they are still active. Easily recognizable for characters should be enough, maybe 10% or more of code still in use for software OR easily recognizable. If MS wanted to leave that much old code on the end of a program doing nothing but taking up space they could...
The way around it is to provide either flash memory or a ROM socket and don't provide the ROM code. It's easily available from many download sites. I think a supplier would be safe to provide the code already in a ROM or flash and state that ownership of an original CoCo3 is required for copyright purposes, and leave that up to the consumer. As stated, it's not like hundreds of the things would be made. If it got up to around 1000 examples made I'd start to be concerned a bit, but not before.
 Frank Swygert
Fix-It-Frank Handyman Service
803-604-6548