Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tektronix!reed!wab
From: wab@reed.UUCP (Bill Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Sun-Macintosh emulator
Message-ID: <12124@reed.UUCP>
Date: 21 Mar 89 19:07:32 GMT
References: <452@vice2utc.chalmers.se> <27619@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: wab@reed.UUCP (Bill Baker)
Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
Lines: 30

In article <27619@apple.Apple.COM> chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) writes:
>[[I probably shouldn't respond, but...]]

What's the matter, Chuq?  Apple got your tongue?

>>If there does exist a program that includes software for copying the ROMs,
>>could someone send it to me?
>
>Just a reminder that copying the ROM's would likely be considered illegal.

This is an interesting question, given that Apple's pricing policy has made
Mac ROM's worth their weight in gold.  Once you buy a Mac, the ROM's
are legal copies of copyrighted media that you now own.  Case law, at
the moment, treats software and ROM code, I believe, like any other
media.  *Theoretically*, then, you can make copies of ROM's for
personal use.  There would be nothing to stop someone marketing a
clone of the Mac architecture with fast RAM in place of the ROM's and
a ROM disassembler, which would copy Mac ROM code onto a hard disk
on the clone, which would then read the copy of the Mac ROM code into
the RAM whenever the machine was booted (very slow boot, of course).
Provided this machine was marketed for the sole purpose of allowing
legal owners of Mac ROM's to copy them for personal use in the clone,
it would probably be legal.  The legal aspects of this are roughly
equivalent to the case that the movie studios companies lost against the VCR
manufacturers.  Whether it would be technologically
feasible or financially viable is another question.

------------
Bill Baker 
{backbone}!tektronix!reed!wab