Atari ROM = public domain ?

[ijor]

There's a big different between not caring to announce something (as in it it's minscule in relevance in to day to day operations) and doing something "secret". There is no "rumour", I'm part of Legacy and I know what I was told by Curt.

 

I possibly used the wrong terms, or may be we are playing semantics, doesn't matter too much. Not announcing might be not significant for Atari, but it is certainly very significant for all of us. And what is more important, without a formal statement, it is legally the same as a rumor.

 

If Bill Gates tells me in a private room that he released Windows into the public domain, it is worthless and useless. Even if he would honestly wanted to do so, and even if he signed a paper, it is still useless without publishing the paper or without a formal statement.

 

I'm not a lawyer and I don't know the exact formal requirements, but I don't think anybody here would require the ultimate formality. Personally, I would be satisfied if Atari would publish a note in its official web site. Guess that would be enough for all of us.

 

I'm not blaming Atari, or Curt (or you) for the lack of a formal statement. Of course not. I am just saying that it is very important, and I am asking for making that statement.

 

More precisely, I am asking here the Atari community, to somehow ask Atari about this.

 

That wasn't in the scope of the discussion, but 2600 wise I know those patents expired already, as had the patent on the "heavy sixer" case design. The only thing they still have are the trademarks and copyrights related to the name.

 

The only thing they still have is precisely the only thing we care. Nobody is talking here about patents, we all know (or assume) they expired. Nobody is talking here about trademarks. We all are talking about copyrights.

 

I don't see how the fact that the information was publicly available could have any legal impact or relevance. You can publish schematics, ASCI netlists, source code, etc, and still mantain full copyright if you want. Actually, Atari published source code for several ROMs back on the old days.

 

From a legal standpoint its simple, you need to actively protect your properties. If it is shown otherwise (i.e. you allowed your material to be used in a public domain manner), you run the risk of loosing that legal protection or claim. Atari publishing something or giving someone permission to publish something, or something being published because of reverse engineering is hardly a counter example, that's not an issue of public domain useage.

 

Sorry, it might be my ignorace but this doesn't make any sense to me at all.

 

Not actively protecting your IP won't affect the copyright status. It might affect, in the worst case, your possibilities of making a case in court. It won't put it in the public domain.

 

But again, what is more important, what's the difference in this regard between the 8-bit chipset and the rest of the Atari vintage IP? Was the 8-bit chipset less "actively protected" than anything else? Of course not. Was the 8-bit chipset information more publicly available? Not at all. Was the 8-bit chipset used more in a public domain manner? Again, not at all.

 

So in which way Atari allowed a public domain usage of the 8-bit chipset more than any other of Atari vintage IP? I would say other IP was actually used much more in a public domain manner.

 

 

To be honest, I'm not sure this point is really important. I guess all of us agree how important would be "freeing" the vintage Atari IP. I think this is the main issue. May be I should open a new thread in the "Announcements" forum. May be we should do a petition as we did it for the Flashback. But I admit I expected much more participation in this thread. So I am not completely sure how many people are interested.