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comp.emulators.misc Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) [3/3] |
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archie.rediris.es 130.206.1.2 Spain
archie.luth.se 130.240.12.23 Sweden
archie.switch.ch 130.59.1.40 Switzerland
archie.switch.ch 130.59.10.40 Switzerland
archie.ncu.edu.tw 192.83.166.12 Taiwan
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.16.11 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.17.5 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.2.10 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.32.5 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.33.5 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 146.169.43.1 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 155.198.1.40 UK
archie.doc.ic.ac.uk 155.198.191.4 UK
archie.hensa.ac.uk 129.12.43.17 UK
archie.bbnplanet.net 192.239.16.130 USA (MD)
archie.unl.edu 129.93.1.14 USA (NE)
archie.internic.net 192.20.225.200 USA (NJ)
archie.internic.net 192.20.239.132 USA (NJ)
archie.internic.net 198.49.45.10 USA (NJ)
archie.rutgers.edu 128.6.18.15 USA (NJ)
archie.ans.net 147.225.1.10 USA (NY)
---------------------------------=:> * <:=---------------------------------
Appendix F - Comp.emulators.misc Charter
The comp.emulators.misc charter, for those who are curious:
Emulation of computer systems on another platform. Emulators which
are not covered elsewhere in the comp.emulators hierarchy can be
discussed here. Emulation of specific hardware by other hardware
in the same system (such as Sound Blaster card emulation by the
Gravis UltraSound card) generally belongs elsewhere.
---------------------------------=:> * <:=---------------------------------
Appendix G - Legal Issues
Invariably, the question of legality of using soft copies of ROM
comes up in the newsgroup. For the exact nuances of how copyright
law applies in your country, I strongly suggest you go to a local
library and check out a book designed to explain copyright law to
non-lawyers.
There are also many myths about the legality of emulators
themselves. I'm not a lawyer, but I have read many books on
intelectual property laws; based on the information I have
gathered, emulation of a machine is completely and defensably
legal, provided that no copyrighted information is used in the
emulation of the machine. (The only other protection that could
possibly be afforded is trademark protection -- just be careful
what you call your emulators, and this one can easily be avoided
-- and patent protection. If a certain aspect of a machine has
been patented, you cannot even emulate that portion without paying
appropriate licensing fees.) According to precedent, emulating a
particular processor (based on known information) is legal (take
the example of AMD and Cyrix making 80x86 compatible chips free of
legal involvement by Intel) as long as it is done without copying
the actual silicon wafer masks used to produce the chips.
Emulating the interaction between a processor and other chips
themselves is legal as well (examples abound; see below). Those
two items are basically all that is necessary to create an
emulator. If, however, the machine so emulated requires a
copyrighted ROM image, operating system, or other programming,
that copyrighted material may not be included. It can be licensed
from the copyright holder, if they cooperate. Depending on the
laws in your country, it may also be sourced from a ROM that you
own (see section G.4 for the pertinent US copyright law).
Evidence of the legality of emulating machines can be seen in the
fact that ARDI maintains a commercial emulation of the Macintosh
without paying Apple any royalties (they have rewritten their own
workalike ROM and OS -- see section 3.7.2); Insignia maintains
SoftWindows (which works with a licensed copy of MS-Windows -- see
section 3.6.6); and Sun maintains WABI (which relpaces the Windows
API with equivalent X calls -- see section 3.6.8). An even more
common example: while most computer users use IBM *compatible*
PCs, when is the last time you actually sat down at an IBM *brand*
PC? Yes, most the 80x86 machines out there are emulations of the
original IBM architecture.
Many game console manufacturers do not seem to have a firm grip on
the actual scope of intelectual property laws; more than one
emulation project has been closed down due to legal threats from
large game console manufacturers. They're wrong, but they're big
-- so they tend to get their way.
Addendum: I've heard reports (although not had time to confirm)
that Microsoft has recently selling their products with a
provision in their license that restricts the software to being
run only "on an authorized copy of a Microsoft operating system."
I can only conjecture that this was done to increase legal
leverage if their applications are being run on pirated copies of
Windows; however, it is also phrased so that it could be illegal
to run their applications on any non-licensed emulator (eg WINE --
see section 3.6.7). It is my own, private, non-lawyer opinion that
such provisions would be easily struck down as anticompetitive, if
legal action were brought. I also think that it would be the worst
possible PR debackle Microsoft could inflict on itself. However,
on the face of it, it may be in violation of the software license
to run certain Microsoft applications under WINE. Note that Wabi
and SoftWindows are both based on technology licensed from
Microsoft, so they are not affected by the new license provisions.
Also note that these restrictions are directly opposed to
provisions in Canadian copyright law (see section G.2), and may be
ruled null in that country for that reason alone.
World Intellecual Property Organization (a UN organization) home
page:
http://www.wipo.int/
The WIPO maintains a list of those countries that are party to the
Berne convention, an international agreement on intellectual
property rights:
http://www.wipo.int/eng/ratific/e-berne.htm
G.1 Australian Copyright Law
The Australian provision corresponding to US Section 117 (below)
does not seem to allow the same liberties:
"...[T]he copyright in a literary work being a computer program
is not infringed by the making of a reproduction of the work,
or of a computer program being an adaptation of the work, if...
the reproduction is made for the purpose only of being used, by
or on behalf of the owner of the original copy, in lieu of the
original copy in the event that the original copy is lost,
destroyed or rendered unusable."
The Australian Copyright act of 1968 is detailed at:
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/index.html
G.2 Canadian Copyright Law
Canadian law is phrased similaraly to US Copyright law (see
below) with regards to copying software [chapter C-24,
subsection 27(2)]:
"The following acts do not constitute an infringement of
copyright:
...
"(l) the making by a person who owns a copy of a computer
program, which copy is authorized by the owner of the
copyright, of a single reproduction of the copy by adapting,
modifying or converting the computer program or translating it
into another computer language if the person proves that:
"(i) the reproduction is essential for the compatibility of the
computer program with a particular computer,
"(ii) the reproduction is solely for the person's own use, and
"(iii) the reproduction is destroyed forthwith when the person
ceases to be the owner of the copy of the computer program..."
This would seem to explicitly protect Canadian users of
emulators from prosecution under copyright laws if they make a
*single* copy of their own, legal cartridges/ROM images/disk
images, etc. as necessary to run them on a particular computer
under an emulator.
Canadian Inellectual Property Office (Office de la Propriete
Intellectuelle du Canada):
http://info.ic.gc.ca/ic-data/marketplace/cipo/
Copyright Act:
http://canada.justice.gc.ca/folio.pgi/estats.nfo/query=*/doc/
{22445,0,0,0}/hit_headings?
G.3 Hong Kong Copyright Law
A very cursory discussion of Hong Kong Intellectual Property law
can be found at:
http://www.houston.com.hk:80/hkgipd/ind_read.html
G.4 US Copyright Law
The rest of the information in this section is aimed primarily
at US residents; if you find any information on the net about
copyrights in other countries, I'd love to include pointers to
it.
A good place to start would be Brad Templeton's "10 Big Myths
about copyright explained." It is available at:
http://www.clari.net/brad/copymyths.html
A more detailed Copyright FAQ list is at:
http://www.aimnet.com/~carroll/copyright/faq-home.html
You may find the information available at the copyright website
of use; it's available at:
http://www.benedict.com/
The US copyright act (title 17) is available via gopher:
gopher://hamilton1.house.gov:70/11d%3a/uscode/title17/
Additionally, the US Library of Congress has a website that
includes information and copyright forms; it's located at:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/
On the topic of copying software for personal use, Section 117
of the U.S. Copyright Act states:
"...[I]t is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a
computer program to make or authorize the making of another
copy or adaptation of that computer program provided... that
such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step
in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with
a machine and that it is used in no other manner..."
This would seem to apply to copying ROMs for use in emulators
(since it is arguably necessary to copy the ROM image as an
essential step in the utilization of the computer program), but
I'm not a laywer.
---------------------------------=:> * <:=---------------------------------
Appendix H - FAQ Archive Sites
All standard FAQs (those listed on the list of periodic postings)
are posted usually not less frequently than once a month to
news.answers; they are also archived at the following sites for
retreival at any time:
North America:
ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet
ftp://mirrors.aol.com/pub/rtfm/usenet
ftp://ftp.seas.gwu.edu/pub/rtfm
ftp://mtecv2.mty.itesm.mx/pub/usenet/news.answers
gopher://gopher.seas.gwu.edu/11/pub/rtfm
gopher://jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca/11/FAQ
http://www.smartpages.com/faqs/
Europe:
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/pub/newfaqs/
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/newfaqs/
http://mailserv.cc.kuleuven.ac.be/faq/faq.html
ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/doc/rtfm
ftp://ftp.univ-lyon1.fr/pub/faq
ftp://ftp.pasteur.fr/pub/FAQ
ftp://ftp.Germany.EU.net/pub/newsarchive/news.answers
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-muenchen.de/pub/comp/usenet/news.answers
ftp://ftp.uni-paderborn.de/doc/FAQ
http://www.Germany.EU.net/
ftp://ftp.cs.ruu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS
http://www.cs.ruu.nl/cgi-bin/faqwais
ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/usenet
ftp://ftp.switch.ch/info_service/Netnews/periodic-postings
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-faqs/
gopher://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/1/usenet/news-FAQS
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-faqs/
Asia:
ftp://ftp.hk.super.net/mirror/faqs
ftp://hwarang.postech.ac.kr/pub/usenet/news.answers
ftp://ftp.edu.tw/USENET/FAQ
Africa:
ftp://ftp.is.co.za/usenet/news.answers/
If any of the above links don't work for you, please E-MAIL ME
ABOUT IT and check the list located at:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news-answers/introduction
---------------------------------=:> * <:=---------------------------------
Appendix I - Credits
Thanks to the following people for their information, without
which this document would not have been possible:
Ron Zayas
Jonathan Badger
Paul Boddie
Byron Followell
Pascal Felber
James Cooper
John Wilson
Craig Jackson
Alastair Booker
Doug Salot
Marinos Yannikos
Craig Jackson
Hetz Ben Hamo
William Kendrick
Paul Burgin
Henk Penning
Fabrice Frances
Emmanuel Roussin
Kevin P Lawton
Filip Kujawski
Martin Gerken
Ewen Roberts
Tom Seddon
Kevin E W Thacker
Hans Guijt
Jean-Francois Fabre
Jim Cook
Bill Griffith
Alexander T. Smith
Tony Smolar
Wouter Scholten
Sunil Gupta
Guenter Woigk
James Fidell
Michael Meissner
David Alan Gilbert
Ed Joseph
Michael Gueting
Carolyn Horn
Corne Beerse
Mike O'Malley
Jeroen van den Belt
Marat Fayzullin
R Ribeiro
Steve Hawley
Juan Jose Epalza
Andrew Cagney
Maarten J. van den Hoek
Bradford W. Mott
Jean-Francois Lozevis
"The Brain"
Carolyn Horn
Alex Hornby
L. D. Tonks
Kevin Postlewaite
Samir Ribic
Ryan
Adam Narrison
Michael Weigand
Keith Wilkins
Paul Robson
Fabien Tassin
Sebastien Brochet
Mike Mallett
Reece Sellin
David Linsley
Russell Schulz
John Marshal
Robert Federle
Erik Kunze
Yury Chebykin
Matthias Jaap
Matt Conte
Paul West
Douglas W. Jones
Chris Murphy
Raymond Ancog
Adam Davidson
Frederic Gidouin
Jean-Francois Lozevis
Chris Hames
Frederic Gidouin
Barry J. Stern
Rich Drewes
Rui Ribeiro
Special thanks to Robert Frank for his list
of VT codes.
Another special thanks is due to Jouko Valta
for his extensive list of emulators and emulator FAQs.
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