[comp.sys.mac] MacsBug available on Compuserve, not net?

maymudes@husc4.UUCP (David Maymudes,,,4982298) (05/26/89)

From article <31641@apple.Apple.COM>, by jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson):
> 
> 	MacsBug is available from APDA.  It is also available - sans manual -
> from the various electronic services (Compuserve, Genie, AppleLink).
> 	Due to the rules of the US Copy right office, we cannot make MacsBug 
> available either via Usenet or via anon FTP.

Why should there be any difference between making MacsBug available over
Compuserve and Genie and making it available by FTP?  AppleLink makes some kind
of sense, because it is restricted to developer types.  Are the CS and Genie
areas with MacsBug public, or limited to people who have AppleLink anyway?

If the point is that only developers should be able to get copies of MacsBug
without going through APDA, that's OK, I suppose; but even then, it would be
convenient for some developers (read "me") to have some (possibly passworded)
ftp access to Apple.

If the copyright question arises because the net is "public" and free, while
Compu$erve is "private" and non-free, then I feel that the net is being
shortchanged, and that the distinction is probably being made by people who
own Compuserve stock. (:-), sort of.

David Maymudes
maymudes@husc4.harvard.edu


						--David Maymudes

maymudes%husc4@harvard.ARPA	maymudes@husc4.harvard.edu
maymudes@husc4.UUCP		maymudes@HARVUNXU.BITNET
..{seismo, harpo, ihnp4, linus, allegra, ut-sally}!harvard!husc4!maymudes
davidm@harvarda.BITNET

mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson) (05/26/89)

In article <1936@husc6.harvard.edu> maymudes@husc4.UUCP writes:
>
>Why should there be any difference between making MacsBug available over
>Compuserve and Genie and making it available by FTP?  AppleLink makes some kind
>of sense, because it is restricted to developer types.  Are the CS and Genie
>areas with MacsBug public, or limited to people who have AppleLink anyway?
>

MacsBug is not limited to developers.  It is available on certain electronic
networks because the people running these networks have a license from Apple
to redistribute it.  To redistribute, they have to have a record of all those
people who download it, have made sure the people read the license agreement,
and a few other non-trivial things.  This is the difference between systems
like CompuServe and AppleLink (people have accounts which can be tracked and
downloaded files can be tracked) and the Internet (anonymous FTP doesn't make
these sorts of requirements very easy to meet).
 
You can be sure that people within Apple are trying to figure out a way to
make things like this available via other sources, but until we can do so
and still please our Software Licensing and Legal departments, we won't.
 
Another difference for the Internet is "commercial use."  As other networks
are for commercial use and the Internet is not.


Mark B. Johnson                                            AppleLink: mjohnson
Developer Technical Support                         domain: mjohnson@Apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc.         UUCP:  {amdahl,decwrl,sun,unisoft}!apple!mjohnson

"You gave your life to become the person you are right now.  Was it worth it?"
                                                         - Richard Bach, _One_

jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson) (05/26/89)

Dear David -

	It has to do with the fact that Compuserve, Genie, and AppleLink all
keep records of who have downloaded software from them and guarantee that
folks see a license agreement from Apple before they download.  The US
Copyright office says that if you are to maintain your copyright you have
to maintain control over who receives your software.
	I have worked in the past to see if it would be possible to make
MacsBug and ResEdit available over the net and via FTP from Sumex.  The
folks in legal looked into and told me that to do so would make us open to
losing our copyrights according to the US Copyright office.  This is due to
the anarachastic nature of the net, and cannot be addressed without changing
the fundamental nature of the net.


Jordan Mattson                         UUCP:      jordan@apple.apple.com
Apple Computer, Inc.                   CSNET:     jordan@apple.CSNET
Development Tools Product Management   AppleLink: Mattson1 
20525 Mariani Avenue, MS 27S
Cupertino, CA 95014
408-974-4601
			"Joy is the serious business of heaven."
					C.S. Lewis

flatmas@ladder.cs.orst.edu (Scott Timothy Flatman) (05/26/89)

ResEdit 1.2b3 is available from several ftp sites. Because Apple could loose itscopyright and I don't want that to happen I will not name names. It is not 
available from sumex so don't waste time looking there. It is in several of
the other popular Mac archives. Answer this riddle to find one of them:

"What state does the wife of a famous rock star with big lips come from?"
There you go. Happy hunting! :-)
----------------------------------------------------------
Scott Flatman
INTERNET: flatmas@ladder.cs.orst.edu
UUCP: hplabs!hp-pcd!orstcs!ladder.cs.orst.edu!flatmas

sho@pur-phy (Sho Kuwamoto) (05/27/89)

In article <31666@apple.Apple.COM> mjohnson@Apple.COM (Mark B. Johnson) writes:
>This is the difference between systems
>like CompuServe and AppleLink (people have accounts which can be tracked and
>downloaded files can be tracked) and the Internet (anonymous FTP doesn't make
>these sorts of requirements very easy to meet).

Is there any reason why Apple could not set up a non-anonymous ftp
server that was well-connected to the net?  Does AppleLink already do
what I'm asking?  First off, is it available to everyone who has an
Apple computer?  Second, is it free?

What I'm saying is that Apple could set up a cheap machine as a
dedicated ftp server, give people separate accounts, and load it with
Tech Notes, system software, ResEdit, etc.  Would this be too expensie
to implement and support?  (I dunno.  Could be.  I have no idea.)

Well, in either case, I have been very happy with Apple's support for
small developers (maybe more like hobbyists in my case) and their
continual upgrades to the system.  Thanks a lot.  And keep up the good
work.

-Sho

Greg@AppleLink.Apple.Com (Greggy) (05/27/89)

In article <31668@apple.Apple.COM> jordan@Apple.COM (Jordan Mattson) 
writes:
>         I have worked in the past to see if it would be possible to make
> MacsBug and ResEdit available over the net and via FTP from Sumex.  The
> folks in legal looked into and told me that to do so would make us open 
to
> losing our copyrights according to the US Copyright office.  This is due 
to
> the anarachastic nature of the net, and cannot be addressed without 
changing
> the fundamental nature of the net.

Or the fundamental nature of the short-sighted copyright laws.

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