[Coco] ROM Copyrights... copyrights in general...

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

Frank,

I'd be wary of offering copyright advice.

I teach Intellectual Property at Northern Vermont University at Johnson, and
your post conflates several issues. Please note: I am not giving legal advice.

Copyright infringement is a federal offense (criminal misdemeanor or felony)
handled by the U.S. Department of Justice. Monetary damages are handled at the
federal district court level by complaint from the copyright owner.

Infringement is a federal offense. It has nothing to do with economic damages.
Profit is not in any way an issue.

Anyone wishing to use anything still under copyright must get permission from
the owners. "Abandonware" (known as an "orphaned work") is still protected,
despite the Catch-22 situation. ("Works published after 1977 will not fall
into the public domain until 70 years after the death of author, or, for
corporate works, anonymous works, or works for hire, 95 years from the date of
publication or 120 years from the date of creation, whichever expires first."
More at <http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm>)

Please consult an intellectual property lawyer if there is any question.

Dennis






On Wed, June 7, 2017 4:11 pm, Francis Swygert wrote:
> I have authored a few books, and did some copyright research a few years back.
> Here are some general facts:
> 1. It's up to the copyright holder to pursue any damages/infringement issues
> 2. In order to win damages, there has to be proof that the copyright
> infringement has damaged the holder in some way... lost sales, etc.
> 3. Most companies will not spend the effort or money to fight a copyright
> infringement of something old and not currently being marketed for the reasons
> above. They will typically send a "cease and desist" letter, and you should
> stop. That's about it. It is possible for them to take further legal action,
> but they have to prove damages in some way.
>
> 4. There are companies, such as Microsoft, that will defend everything. Even
> they will send a "cease and desist" letter first. Something as old an no
> longer used as Disc BASIC (DECB -- it was made by Micro-Soft!) they will
> hardly bat an eye at though, or even MS-DOS. They will defend Windows code, as
> some snippets of code are still being used from Windows 3.x, IIRC (might not
> be since the demise of XP though).
>
> 5. The bottom line is unless you're distributing for a profit, there isn't
> really much anyone would (or in most cases could) do about the old ROMs.
> Copyrights were established to protect authors, but were never intended to be
> forever. Companies with long standing profitable items like Disney (Mickey
> Mouse, etc.) have pushed to make copyrights be automatic and basically
> forever. I personally have no issue with there being a way to renew, or even
> have an automatic renewal, as long as something is actually being used. But
> the relatively new "lifetime of author +70 years" (went into effect Jan 1,
> 1978 -- How Long Does Copyright Protection Last? (FAQ) | U.S. Copyright
> Office) is really absurd. Since Disney Corporation is the registered copyright
> holder of all their stuff, the copyright lasts 70 years after the corporation
> dies. But then who would sue, since there would be no longer be an entity...
> Well, that's not likely to happen any time soon!  But with Tandy all but gone
> now...
>
> 6. On another note -- if the author of any CoCo items on a website asked that
> their work be taken down, I'd certainly do it out of respect, and I'd
> certainly respect any kind of "cease and desist" letter, even if the
> likelihood of being sued was nil. It becomes a respect issue then.