Roland Attacks MT-32 Emulator Project

canadacow writes "The MT-32 emulation project, which is an offshoot of the DosBox project recently received a cease and desist letter regarding the use of the PCM samples from the synthesizer. Normally this would be an open and shut case, but it just so happens that U.S. Copyright law (specifically 17 U.S.C. section 405) shows that Roland lost their copyright because nowhere did they explicity register it, and registering (or atleast copyright marking) was required before 1989. The MT-32, of course, was produced in 1987. You can find more details at the emulation forum on Vogons" In particular, read through this thread for Canadacow's response to Roland's lawyers, for the type of response that most lawyers probably don't expect from most programmers.

Comments

Roland CM-32L

[Spire]

The original Roland MT-32 was released in 1987, but what about the Roland CM-32L? The CM-32L was a later model that was internally identical to the MT-32, except that it had a larger ROM space that contained twice as many ROM samples: the original MT-32 set, plus a bunch of new sample banks unique to the CM-32L.

I've never owned an original MT-32, but I do own a still-working CM-32L, and I can confirm that it is 100% backward-compatible to the MT-32, and sounds exactly the same as an MT-32, even when programmed to use custom MT-32 patches (instrument definitions). Many games from the MT-32 era used such custom patches extensively, as did the sequencing software I used at the time, Ballade.

I'm not sure exactly when the CM-32L came out (I can't find the information on Google), but there's a good chance it was 1989 or later. If so, then how does that affect the copyright issue?