Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Apple's right to stop traffic in Mac ROMS
Message-ID: <1991Feb23.062711.5874@looking.on.ca>
Date: 23 Feb 91 06:27:11 GMT
References: <24928@netcom.COM> <12431@helios.TAMU.EDU> <1991Feb23.020232.24678@eff.org>
Organization: Looking Glass Software Ltd.
Lines: 29

Those of you complaining about Apple having a "monopoly" on these Roms do
not understand the meaning of copyright.  The purpose of copyright is to
give the author a monopoly on control of copying of the work.

I have no idea what Apple's really doing, but they have the right to
sell the ROMS to the dealers under almost any conditions they like,
including a prohibition on selling for any other purpose than installing
in a Mac.

They also have the right to tell dealers that old releases are not to
be sold.  Every software developer wants this sort of right.  Who wants to
run around supporting old releases, not just with old customers, but also
with new ones.   The stores also have the right not to accept these terms
and sell other brands of computers -- which is just what many stores do.

They wrote the code.  It's theirs.   They could be far more restrictive,
not selling rom chips outside of the computers at all.  If you insist on
a right to use the roms in a purpose the owner of the code hates, are you
ready to force them into far nastier positions?    The software *is*
the Macintosh.  The hardware in the machine is not much special, and
it is certainly overpriced for what it is, although less so today than a
few months ago.

Selling the roms only for their machine is how they make money.  This
is the purpose of the monopoly that copyright grants.


-- 
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473