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sort of legal roms question

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GoPodular.com:

I'm aware of what IP is.  That's why I brought up the TM portion of it.  It's only part of the IP equation.  I can probably explain my point better with an example:

Assume somebody took over the IP of Universal.  If it wasn't purchased outright, it would default to their creditors.  The investors don't make games, so the TM is forgotten and eventually cancelled out of the system.  Until...

Someone notices that the trademark has expired.  They fill out the required papers, send in a check and get a letter saying they own the trademark.

Who owns the ROM?  One person has company buyout paperwork in the back of the closet, one has TM paperwork front and center.  Unless someone pulls the paperwork out of the closet and brings it to court, the TM owner can do whatever they want.  Until they get caught anyhow.

Unless you've read every contract, including employee contracts, it's a gamble to assume you own it.  That's why the ROM's that are being sold are ones where ownership is clear or the seller is shady.

LOL.  The copyright office IS the dark ages.

elvis:


--- Quote from: RayB on October 16, 2006, 05:12:09 pm ---The only games that have been truly authorized for free use and distribution is Robby Roto, and games for the Vectrex. (Might be a couple others, but I'm not aware of them).
--- End quote ---
http://www.mame.net/downmisc.html

Gridlee as well.


--- Quote from: GoPodular.com on October 17, 2006, 08:13:27 pm ---LOL.  The copyright office IS the dark ages.
--- End quote ---
Amen to that. 

Problem is copyright in it's current form was designed to stop the redistribution of PRINTED material, which is PHYSICAL in nature.  ROMs and other electronic data (including digital music, movies, etc) are not physical.  Copying any electronic data from one source to another makes a perfect digital replica, and is not "stealing" per se (in the sense that stealing removes an item from one person's possession and gives it to another).

Likewise one could argue that I have not actually copied anything at all.  The magnetic sectors on my harddisk merely realigned to per chance match the alignment of someone else's hard disk.  Those sectors were there all along, and I have gained nothing.  My hard disk is no "heavier" for the addition of information to it.  Technically speaking I could write a program that randomly re-aligned all the magnetic sectors on my harddisk.  Given enough iterations and time, I would eventually have made a copy of all data currently stored electronically in the world by pure chance.  Scary thought.

As you can see, "modern" copyright law is grossly inadequate for the digital age.  The bigger problem at hand is the fact that law takes a very long time to change, and in particular the people who are responsible for such things don't like change, as they are quite happily making arseloads of money while everyone is busy taking everyone else to court.  Why would anyone involved in the legal profession want to kill off their cash cow?

I don't see a solution to the problem appearing any time soon, especially not with the way the corporate world is headed, and how it currently influences the political world.  The Orwellian future is nigh.


RayB:

I'd like to hear your solution Elvis. What would be better than the current copyright system?

Your digital argument is quite flakey, considering I can do the same minute analysis of ink droplets being arranged on processed trees.

The length of copyright is flawed. The DMCA is flawed. But I hope you aren't one of these nuts that argues there should be no copyright on anything.


WunderCade:

It used to be that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery. That old axiom has evolved, now $$$ is sincerest form of happiness... "Screw imitation, you just stepped on my money!"

londonbabe:

I don't know much about copyright law in various countries, but I would assume that the rom code is copyrighted, and the logos are trademarked. That's potentially two separate sets of rights to sort out. You may also have a third copyright on characters and designs. Maybe another on sounds as well.

The first thing to do is to find out what the expiry on the different types of copyright is and whether its possible to extend them.

The idea of some kind of wiki database is appealing. It could be set up to identify those games for which ownership is unknown, or those that don't belong to huge corporations, and then approaches could be made to persuade the owners to come forward and/or release into the public domain.

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