Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Making Emerson a legal system

2 views
Skip to first unread message

WShrake

unread,
Dec 7, 1998, 3:00:00 AM12/7/98
to
Hi all. I'm writing to solicit help on a project.

After all the talk on this newsgroup lately, about the legal and moral issues
involved in dumping and emulating ROM images, I for one have decided that the
IDSA's stance on things isn't really all that unreasonable. To be honest, I've
been heartened by their admission that some games most likely will never be
sold again commercially, as most of the stuff I've worked on archiving over the
years probably falls solidly into that category.

(See their web site for the exact wording of their complete official
statement... http://www.idsa.com/antipiracy/index.html)

They actively are encouraging retrogamers to try to track down the rightful,
legal owners of videogame properties, then asking them if they'd mind releasing
those games for noncommercial uses. I've already begun trying to do that, to
some extent. Seems like a natural next step in the process or archiving this
old stuff?

On the Commodore VIC-20 games, I've located some of my favorite programmers and
started talking to them about it. Although I can't take credit for negotiating
these success stories, Jeff Minter already agreed to release all of his VIC-20
games as long as they aren't sold. And Scott Adams' web site says his older
stuff is being treated more or less like shareware now. So some of the VIC-20
library is "legal" at least. If nothing else, it proves it is not impossible to
do what IDSA wants, even if it might be a pain or take awhile. I've decided to
chip away at the problem, over time. It could not hurt, the way I see it?

Don't under estimate the power of even just a tiny fraction of a library being
legal. If no games are legal for a given system, you can't legally justify
emulation, can you? That's IDSA's stance as I understand it. But with at least
a few "legal" games being released for a given system, that would strengthen
the argument that emulation of that particular machine could actually be for
legitimate purposes. (I don't personally need this thought to convince me to
give this a try, but others may want to think about it?)

What I do need help on is info related to the Emerson Arcadia 2001 system and
its clones. If ever there were a system with next to zero chance of ever coming
back commercially, most of us retrogamers would say the 2001 was high on the
list. So why not use it as a test of getting rights released?

I need info to get started on this. I'd appreciate any help I get.

Who owns what? Did Emerson sell their rights off to the companys overseas, or
what? Does anyone out there know who "UA Ltd." is? (Their names are on most if
not all of the carts, as the copyright holders.) Where might I start looking,
to find the people that hold those copyrights? Emerson is a logical enough bet;
I'll try talking to them first. Any other thoughts or ideas on how to track
this stuff down?

Ward Shrake

Remember the Commodore VIC-20? Like classic videogames?
Then check out... http://members.aol.com/wshrake/index.htm

0 new messages