Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!vw3 From: vw3@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Vernon Williams) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2 Subject: Re: DOOFBALL/Tybalt Message-ID: <1991Jan5.194442.8079@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> Date: 5 Jan 91 19:44:42 GMT References: <910105055110.049188@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> Organization: Columbia University Lines: 20 In article <910105055110.049188@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL> TMPLee@DOCKMASTER.NCSC.MIL writes: >If 5.0.4 is readily available to anyone who can ftp to apple.com I don't >understand how it can possibly be "illegal" to post them someplace else >in a more useful form where exactly the same set of people (no more, no >less) can get at them. It is illegal because Apple owns the operating system and they control it's distribution. To do what you suggest the site with the copy of the system software would merely need permission from Apple to distribute it. While it was somewhat goofy for Apple to post Apple II system software in a format that Apple II users could not (until recently) use, I do respect them wanting to have a certain amount of control over how it gets to users. It's a major thing for them to have it available in the way they have at all. After all, when was the last time you saw MS-DOS or Windows posted on an FTP site, or available for free at your local IBM dealer? +---------------------------+-------------------------------------------------+ |Vernon L. Williams | Electronic Mail: vw3@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu | |Thomas J. Watson Library | Campus Mail: 130 Uris Hall | |Columbia University | Phone Mail: 212-854-6798 |