Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!mcnc!taco!hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu!kdarling From: kdarling@hobbes.catt.ncsu.edu (Kevin Darling) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc Subject: Re: CDTV News Message-ID: <1991Jun20.030802.3661@ncsu.edu> Date: 20 Jun 91 03:08:02 GMT References: <1991Jun18.132410.29459@news.iastate.edu> <1991Jun18.191519.26912@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> <1991Jun18.195643.949@ncsu.edu> <1991Jun19.040714.2581@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <1991Jun19.054406.27121@ncsu.edu> <22587@cbmvax.commodore.com> Sender: news@ncsu.edu (USENET News System) Organization: North Carolina State University Lines: 37 jjszucs@cbmvax.commodore.com (John J. Szucs) writes: > kdarling@catt.ncsu.edu writes: >> [discussion of CDTV copy protection deleted] >> >> In addition, it seems that CBM is considering jigging things so that >> "non-CDTV" discs can't be used on their player (like what discs? got me! >> oh wait. perhaps ones they didn't master themselves?). The reason >> behind this is simple enough: CBM gets a minor royalty off each disc. >> Non-CBM discs = less royalties. > >Before booting from a CD-ROM, the CDTV system software verifies that a >"trademark file" is present on the disc. > >This "trademark file" is licensed to the developers for a small fee and >may be placed on the disc by ANY CD-ROM mastering company (not just >Commodore). It does not prevent booting from discs not mastered by >Commodore -- it only prevents booting from discs that do not contain the >trademark file. Many thanks for the more detailed explanation than I had heard. So the mastering guess was wrong, but the upshot is still that all bootable CDTV disc authors must pay a small "royalty" to Commodore. Well heck, I'd probably ask for the same, if it were my baby :-). > There are justified legal reasons for doing this, although I'm not > completely aware of the details since I'm more involved with the > technical side of things. Yah, it certainly makes sense if the boot contains Amiga OS code, which will be most of the time. And a small fee wouldn't hurt anyone else... altho it might raise some Nintendo-style questions of an app monopoly. Ah, but that's a territory for the lawyers :-) A popular concern is over future disc interchangability between CDTV players and Amigas. The original copy protection issue is far more critical in that respect. Let's all hope that few disc titlers think that it's needed. regards and thx - kevin