[Blindapple] Math games disk

[Tony Baechler]

Again, sorry for replying to such an old post.  I would go ahead and
release the games disk.  If it's what I think it is, I do have a legal
copy on an actual floppy disk from APH.  It had a Braille label as I
recall and had about 10 math games of various sorts.  Asimov has the
majority of all MECC games already with a few others on other sites.  I'm
not saying that releasing it makes it legal, but you can always pull it if
they bother you.  Also, while we're on the subject, if you're really
worried about following the law and not releasing any MECC titles, you
should pull Oregon Trail and Lemonade Stand as they were both originally
released by MECC and later adapted for other platforms.  Look at the
Oregon Trail Wikipedia article.  There is also a site called mecc.co which
has a timeline of when software was released.  Apparently Apple somehow
got the rights to Lemonade Stand, but it was first a MECC title.  You
aren't distributing it commercially, so I wouldn't worry about it myself,
but oh well, do as you think you must.

Similarly, some of the games and utilities on some of the other disks
you've released (the DOS System Master, for example) are still under
copyright as well.  Apple still owns the rights to DOS 3.3, even though
the source has been released.  I saw a few games originally published in
Softdisk which are also still under copyright.  You might as well pull
egames.dsk because Life Expectancy would fall under the Creative Computing
copyright.  However, with the exception of Softdisk, I don't really think
there is enough commercial value to make it worth pulling them and I
wouldn't worry about being sued.  Also, as I've mentioned to you
previously, there was an ammendment in the copyright law basically not
enforcing copyrights on old systems for which the firmware/hardware isn't
easily available and they are no longer being manufactured.  Apple
officially abandoned the IIgs in 1992 and the rest of the Apple II line a
year later, so I think you're on pretty safe ground, but as I said, do as
you feel you must.

On 10/7/2013 3:35 AM, Jayson Smith wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On the subject of that math games disk with all those games people have
> been talking about. I actually have that disk, and would be glad to
> make it available. However, I'm not sure I can legally. I did find more
> concrete information about the problem with MECC software titles on the
> Wikipedia article about abandonware. Although this disk was released by
> APH, it was a modified version of a MECC disk. Here's the relevant
> section of the article.
> 
> There are groups that lobby companies to release their software as
> freeware. These efforts have met with mixed results. One example is the
> library of educational titles released by MECC. MECC was sold to
> Brøderbund, which was sold to The Learning Company. When TLC was
> contacted about releasing classic MECC titles as freeware, the
> documentation proving that TLC held the rights to these titles could
> not be located, and therefore the rights for these titles are "in
> limbo" and may never be legally released.
> 
> Jayson
> 
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-- 
Have a good day,
Tony Baechler
tony at baechler.net