[Coco] MAME

[Stephen H. Fischer]

When this discussion took place years ago (With some stu___ people wanting to ask Tandy for permission which would have then cost then $25,000 to say no) it was discovered that Tandy's rights had been sold to another company which sold them to another company with perhaps a large company like Samsung ending up with them. No, not any software that we had ever heard about and not any CoCo software for sure being the valuable parts in the package. And the lawyers in the end know how to protect the copyright should they wish, but the price of saying NO has risen to ~ $250,000 by now.

So as no way could any money be made or lost, "Are you likely to be prosecuted?". NO. Only if the valuable part were to be in play would the lawyers start anything.

Scroll back many decades in this list for the discussion.

SHF 

  
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce W. Calkins" <brucewcalkins at charter.net>
To: "Salvador Garcia via Coco" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2017 9:06 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] MAME


> Like many early computing systems the legal issues of the copyrights are 
> a bit muddy.  The Color Computer's original ROMs were written by 
> Microsoft, a company known to aggressively protect their interests.  How 
> the original contract with Radio Shack AKA Tandy would also figure in.  
> Similarly with Microware's overlay code for the CoCo 3.  With Radio 
> Shacks repeated corporate bankruptcy their hold on the copyright might 
> be hard to prove.
> 
> The basic issue is: It is a violation of copyright law to distribute 
> copies of the Color Computer ROMs.  Are you likely to be prosecuted?  So 
> far it appears to be unlikely, but should one of the interested parties 
> file suit, you would probably be bankrupted and possibly incarcerated.  
> Risk verses reward, your call.
> 
> Bruce W.
> 
> 
> 
> On 06/07/2017 10:40 AM, Salvador Garcia via Coco wrote:
>> Perhaps an obvious question, but is (or are) the legal owner(s) or the ROMs? Is it Tandy/Radio Shack, or are other parties involved?
>>
>> Salvador
>>
>>        From: Barry Nelson <barry.nelson at amobiledevice.com>
>>   To: coco at maltedmedia.com
>>   Sent: Tuesday, June 6, 2017 8:28 PM
>>   Subject: [Coco] MAME
>>     
>> As far as the roms for MAME are concerned, we don’t “talk" about that unfortunately, because those files are not legal to distribute yet for the CoCo. At least we don’t “officially” talk about it. You would be taking a risk mentioning any sites that have those files hosted in your video. Maybe not a big risk, but still...