Date   : Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:44:00 GMT
From   : pmorrisb@... (Phil Morris)
Subject: Re: Roms and (C)

In-Reply-To: <9501311329.AA23407@...>

> Oh well.  Maybe we should all pack up and go home then.  After all, we
> don't want our users to get locked up for infringment.  :-(  Seems a bit
> tight of Acorn though.  Most of us have paid good money for a beeb back in
> the old days...

Agreed. And what about those that have written/are writing BBC Micro 
emulators - will their code only be usable by those who are 'illegally' 
using copied ROMs? 

Are any emulator writers seriously cheesed off by this, to the point they 
might stop work on their emulators? I sincerely hope not ........... :-(((

Still, there is hope ..... I mean, I know of a at least one DOS-based C64 
emulator that needs copyrighted Commodore ROMs to run, and it doesn't stop 
people using them. Maybe it's illegal, but people will still do it! :-)

> Well, if we had a better grasp of them (I had heard Acorn was writing
> another bbc-b emulator for the risc pc) maybe Acorn's position would be a
> little easier to understand. :-)  If Acorn don't want to release the roms
> generally, how about a free license to bundle them with the emulator?

Again, I agree - I don't see what possible harm this can do to Acorn. 
Still, that depends on the intransigence (or not as the case might be) of 
those who make these sort of decisions.

> 
> Please keep plugging away for us William

Seconded - please do! Our criticisms aren't aimed at you ............ :-)




Phil