Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!netcom!rodent
From: rodent@netcom.COM (Ben Discoe)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Apple's right to stop traffic in Mac ROMS
Message-ID: <24928@netcom.COM>
Date: 21 Feb 91 00:56:45 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest}
Lines: 23

I was shocked to hear from a mail-order house today that they can not sell
me the Macintosh ROMS they have in stock because Apple has told them they
can't.  Bizarrely, they CAN sell the ROMS as part of a package deal from
another supplier, but they can't sell the ROMs by themselves.

At first I thought this was totally ridiculous - if the mail order shop
bought the ROMs, how could Apple's copyright stop the further traffic?
This would be like Stephen King declaring that no bookstore can sell his
books, effectively turning millions of books on shelved around the world
into mulch.  This is ridiculous.

After discussing this with a legal type, it was pointed out that Apple
COULD stop the trade in ROMs if the ROMs were stolen or illegal copies.
However, not only would Apple have to PROVE this, but dozens of mail-
order houses, many of high esteem, have carried the chips for months or
years!  These people wouldn't sell illegal stuff!

Yet, I called several today and they all say that either the ROMs are
"not available" or they can't sell them to me.

What's going on here?  More frontier violence?

....Ben, in San Jose, city of thoughtless destructive human sheep.