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

[Rietveld Rietveld]

Somebody can correct me if I am wrong but I believe up here in Canada the laws are a bit grey.
I think the 'uploading' is illegal, but not the downloading or streaming



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  Original Message
From: James Ross
Sent: Wednesday, June 7, 2017 8:40 PM
To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Reply To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [Coco] ROM Copyrights... copyrights in general...


Is it technically illegal to download and/or distribute copyrighted CoCo ROMs? Yes. Is it theoretically possible to get into trouble for doing either? Yes. But the chances of that happening are probably sooooo slim, you would have a much greater chance at winning the Powerball lottery by yourself.

Someone already mentioned MS-DOS.  It takes all of 3 minutes to find pristine MS-DOS 6.22 / and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 copies to download. You could probably locate a half-dozen more sites w/ them within a few more minutes.

Google: “download windows 98 second edition” … First hit. Windows 2000 / NT4 … same site.

If MS is not worried about taken those websites down – what is the chance they will come after lowly CoCo ROMS?

Mac OS / OS/2 there too … so even Apple and IBM haven’t bothered w/ taking down that particular site down.

There are probably dozens of sites that have them all.

It’s what Stephen said – it would be unproductive to sue. The judge might even throw out the case as wasting the courts time.  Someone going to jail over it? Really? That is ridiculous.

Is it unethical / immoral to do it? IMO, no. Why? Because the law is ridiculous.

Are there stretches of roads around where you live that the speed limit is to low?  Let’s say a stretch where it’s 45 and people routinely do 50/55 in that stretch. Do you slow-down and go 45 religiously?  If you don’t then guess what?  … :)

James

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