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Roland Backs Down On MT-32 Emulator
canadacow writes "This is a follow up to the cease and desist letter the MT-32 project received (Original Story). Roland, unable to find documentationg establishing a copyright on the MT-32's ROM, has yielded to the project and allowed distribution of the emulator to continue. On my page www.artworxinn.com/alex I've again posted the emulator along with the legal developments as they happened after the receipt of the initial C&D letter. This development was largely due in part to the legal support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
Horay. We get to use iformation that an organisation has no further need for and no longer uses yet stll jealously guards.
Not quite sure it's a major victory.
No. They are responsible for what their lawyers do. When they say they are sorry, then we can begin to think about being nice to them again.
Before you all get excited about this, note that this is not a win for OSS -- not really. Notice that no legality was established. Roland simply gave up because they have not been able to find their documentation establishing copyright.
Agreed. There's no question that Roland should own the copyright; they designed and manufactured the MT-32 after all. From what I've read on the site, they may lose their copyright only based on not being able to find the correct documentation to satisfy the requirements of a technicality invoked by omitting the copyright notice on the original ROM.
(Before any of you chime in saying that losing documentation is stupid, how many of you who work in IT would be hard pressed to provide licenses to all of the software you use if the BSA knocked on your door today, hm?)
I'm not celebrating this as a victory because it seems to me that obscure loopholes can just as easily be legal land mines for OSS developers, most of which can't afford to keep legal counsel on retainer.
Does its MT-32 emulator support custom patches? If not, it's useless for almost all Sierra games and the Ultima games, among others. Very, very few games use only the default patches, and all of the "MT-32 compatible" devices I've seen support only the MT-32's default patches.
Bít, zabít, jen proto, ze su liska!
To wit, if on the high seas - if not yet on the High Internet - anyone coming across something abandoned, has rights to claim it, if the original owner has disappeared, or if the original owner has lost interest in it, or a significant portion of its value if the original owner has lost control of it.
We've heard an awful lot about "Property Rights" as applied to software - I think we need to hear a lot more about "Salvage Rights" - because that is part and parcel of the business risk assessment that insurers do for shipping lines, and that is nothing if not Property Rights.
"I his bow, and spun and wove, likes you." Vere de Vere out of my mould's mouth dragged me of the voluntary apes.
Musicians generally don't need "the lastest thing", much to the chagrin of big companies who are trying to get us to go digital.
However, keep in mind that this is a double-edged sword, and sometimes it cuts the way of the manufacturers. One benefit about musicians accepting older tech is that the companies can have higher profit margins selling that stuff. Don't you think Shure paid off their R&D budgets on the SM-58 a few years back? And don't you think their factories are still cranking those about as efficiently as possible for $99 a pop? Talk about potential for profit.
Another example is the Alesis SR-16 drum machine, which I recently purchased myself. It was first manufactured in 1990, and has seen only tiny internal changes since then. Yet up until about three months ago, they were still selling for $200 new. They're now down to $150, but can you say "cash cow"?
I suspect they lowered the price because of price pressure from eBay, of all places, where several a week were selling for consistently $100-$125. (And that's where I got mine, for the record.)
So yeah, they don't have the forced upgrade cycle, but they also don't have to outlay several billion for a new fab every few years like AMD does. I suspect they prefer the slower pace.
Graham "Teach" Mitchell, computer science teacher, Leander HS
He's right...there is no such thing as "IP".
There is:
Patents
Copyrights
Trademarks
He's not being pedantic, he simply wants you to stop pretending this is equivalent to real property. That doesn't mean he thinks you should infringe copyright, or break the law, he simply wants you to be more specific.
I guess some people hide their ignorance by lashing out at others. People like you. You are a sad, sad little boy.
"Are they even SELLing that machine anymore? Or are they just being ***s?"
"(But I do hope that Roland can't come up with the required evidence -- free beer is fine by me ;-))"
"When [Roland] say they are sorry, then we can begin to think about being nice to them again."
If this were the other way around, the same users (likely not innovators themselves) would be outraged.
Mind-boggling.
I believe that the MT-32 Emulator is a worth while project - But I am confused as to why the ROM needs to be copied at all. Why not record your own samples instead? It is not like those original samples are that great anyways. If the open source community (me included) recorded and processed our OWN samples, then none of these issues would have come up. The copyright on the originals would not be an issue at all.
--jeff++
ipv6 is my vpn