Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2.fluke 9/24/84; site vax2.fluke.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!kurt From: kurt@fluke.UUCP (Kurt Guntheroth) Newsgroups: net.micro.atari Subject: Re: --- Copying Pac-Man --- Message-ID: <991@vax2.fluke.UUCP> Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 11:35:24 EST Article-I.D.: vax2.991 Posted: Wed Oct 30 11:35:24 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 01:37:10 EST References: <8510230038.AA00819@UCB-VAX> <987@vax2.fluke.UUCP> <2327@ukma.UUCP> Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA Lines: 21 If you are talking about cloning -- writing from scratch an exact copy, you can still get into trouble. In the Pacman example, for instance, the pac man character can be copyrighted. Now you can duplicate the game, but if your player token looks loke a little round ball with a bug mouth, you may be sued for stealing the character, not the game. In the MSDOS example, remember what happened to Eagle(?) computers when they tried to duplicate the ROM BIOS for MSDOS. Some of the engineers had SEEN listings of the IBM BIOS so they got sued for copying even though the copy was not exact and had been substantially written from scratch. (There is a company who now makes a living selling a compatible BIOS written from scratch by engineers who NEVER have LOOKED at the IBM BIOS.) I would have said it is possible to clone most commercial products without fear up until now, because you were cloning the function and not copying the program. Maybe the visual imagry of the Mac makes it enough like a work of art (in the legal, not the aesthetic sense) to make it protectable under copyright law. Remember, the details of the case are not disclosed. -- Kurt Guntheroth John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. {uw-beaver,decvax!microsof,ucbvax!lbl-csam,allegra,ssc-vax}!fluke!kurt