Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
From: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Apple's right to stop traffic in Mac ROMS
Message-ID: <44526@ut-emx.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 91 15:29:03 GMT
References: <24928@netcom.COM>
Sender: news@ut-emx.uucp
Reply-To: awessels@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Allen Wessels)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 31

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

>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?

I'd bet that your mail order source COULD sell you that ROM if they wanted to,
but then they'd have to deal with the consquences.  Apple would probably exert
pressure on everyone it does business with not to deal with that mail order
firm.

The ROMs are the only thing about the Mac that Apple can really control.  The
hardware isn't anything special and you can get the System software very easily.
Why would you buy a Mac if you could just buy the ROM and pop it into someone
else's 680x0 machine?

It may be that those mail order firms aren't doing anything illegal, but they
are certainly in a fuzzy area.  Apple doesn't allow its dealers to sell via
mail order, but you can find Macs being sold that way.  It's called the grey
market.  Selling a whole machine is more profitable than just selling the ROM,
and those mail order firms may not wish to jeoparize their sources.

I think Apple has made a mistake in not making the ROMs available (at least the
low-end ROMs), but there are good arguments both for and against that strategy.