Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) (07/12/89)
I have a question for all the folks out there on the net. This is a very broad question, but since I couldn't find a specific newsgroup to deal with it I decided to post it here since it deals with the Atari 8-bit. I want to know the ethical [and legal if there are any copyright lawyers out there] rules [laws, scriptures, traditions] of posting/destributing the source code of a copyrighted program. In particular I am speaking of TEXTPRO3.2R. I have been unsuccessful in my quest to locate the authors, so I have disassembled the object code and I am in the process of commenting it. After I finish I want to distribute it [for free] to anyone who asks. Now, how about some comments on what I want to do? Please, no flames, I won't take a single point you raise seriously if you put it in a flame. Charles Hughes @cup.portal.com
brett@umd5.umd.edu (Brett Bourbin) (07/12/89)
In article <20338@cup.portal.com> Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes) writes: > > I have a question for all the folks out there on the net. This is a very >broad question, but since I couldn't find a specific newsgroup to deal with it >I decided to post it here since it deals with the Atari 8-bit. > > I want to know the ethical [and legal if there are any copyright lawyers out >there] rules [laws, scriptures, traditions] of posting/destributing the source >code of a copyrighted program. In particular I am speaking of TEXTPRO3.2R. I >have been unsuccessful in my quest to locate the authors, so I have >disassembled the object code and I am in the process of commenting it. > After I finish I want to distribute it [for free] to anyone who asks. Now, >how about some comments on what I want to do? Please, no flames, I won't take >a single point you raise seriously if you put it in a flame. Well, I hope you take the points I raise seriously, for you could get yourself in big trouble. First, if a program is copyrighted, that means the author of the work owns the rights to it. He/she can do with it what they wish. If you disassemble the binaries, comment them and then turn around and distribute them, you are violating the copyright. There might be a good reason the source is not in the PD and I could go through and list many reasons, but I don't wish to waste bandwidth. The end result - unless you have the authors permission, DON'T distribute disassembled code and place it in the PD. >Charles Hughes >@cup.portal.com --Brett S Bourbin, Instructional Computing Programs -- Univ of Maryland Computer Science Center, College Park, MD 20742 INTERNET: brett@umd5.umd.edu BIX: brettb DELPHI: brettb