Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!tamsun.tamu.edu!cmw1725
From: cmw1725@tamsun.tamu.edu (Christopher Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Apple's right to stop traffic in Mac ROMS
Message-ID: <12431@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Date: 21 Feb 91 15:24:57 GMT
References: <24928@netcom.COM>
Sender: usenet@helios.TAMU.EDU
Organization: Texas A&M University
Lines: 51

In article <24928@netcom.COM> rodent@netcom.COM (Ben Discoe) writes:
>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.

The reason that Apple doesn't want the ROMs to be old separatly is twofold,
one reason is that the Amiga company ReadySoft cas come out with a Mac
emulator, which needs the ROMs to work (Well actually you don't NEED the ROMs
but, then you wouldn't be legal would you...).  That is not what stirred up
the trouble though, the thing that got on Apples back was that the Amiga`s
Mac emulator, worked BETTER than several of Apples own machines...  (Programs
actually run faster on my Amiga running in Mac mode than on a decked out Mac,
with the same processor, hey go figure!)  Many Mac owners rightfully complained
and in an attempt to put an end to the situation they prohibited the sale of
the ROMs by non Apple dealers, and prohibited the sale of the ROMs alone.
This although has not stopped the sale of the ROMs, because dealers are selling
them in "packeges" along with Mac drives and other stuff...  Maybe this is 
just backstock, or dealers ignoring Apples wishes, but I don't think so.
Another reason that could be for the prohibition, is that some guy was
manufacturing Mac roms from his home, silkscreening the Apple logo on it, and
supplying the country, until he was caught, and promptly and justly prosecuted.
This is just something I have heard from somewhere or other (the part about
the fake ROMs), it might not be totally acurate.

  There is HOPE for the people who want the ROMs though, some company has made
their own version of the ROMs so that they can make a Mac clone, and these
(if the company is smart) should be freely available, if and when they come 
out...

Christopher Walton
cmw1725@tamsun.tamu.edu