apratt@atari.UUCP (Allan Pratt) (10/17/90)
Some people have expressed confusion over the legality of the "Atari emulator" now floating around the net for the Amiga. I understand that Atari's position is that it is a grave and flagrant violation of Atari's copyright, and we are asking everybody, especially archive sites and BBSes, to stop distributing it and remove all copies they have. I don't know why people think this *could* be legal: it's a derivative work from Atari's copyrighted material, and Atari intends to protect its copyrights. Some people have expressed dismay that their favorite archive or BBS might get in trouble. In my *personal* opinion, the operators of these sites bring doom upon themselves by making uploads immediately available for downloading, with no checks on the content of the uploads. I believe that only a Common Carrier, such as the phone company or an airline, can legally be blind to the content of the information or goods they transport and distribute. Everybody else is responsible for exercising due diligence to ensure that no illegal activity is going on using their equipment or service. Since this program is prima facie a copyright violation, a duly diligent sysop would not have made it available for downloads. Finally, some people have expressed the opinion that Atari should be a "good guy" and take no action concerning this. That's nonsense. If you don't vigorously protect your copyrights, you lose them. Ignoring this could mean relinquishing all rights to protect TOS from copying and modification. This message represents my opinions and things I believe to be true, but it is not to be considered a legal opinion from Atari's legal department or anybody else but me. -- Allan Pratt Systems Software Engineer Atari Computer Corp. ...ames!atari!apratt