ehsu@husc9.harvard.edu (Eric Hsu) (05/25/91)
The last article was asking for a copy of Snake Byte, claiming it was in the public domain (I haven't heard about that). I was wondering if there was anything illegal about distributing pirated copies of a game that is now public domain (no, I don't have a copy... I was just wondering). -- Eric Hsu ehsu@husc4.Bitnet, ehsu@husc9.harvard.edu
gray@ibis.cs.umass.edu (Lyle Gray) (05/25/91)
In article <1991May24.160137.1152@husc3.harvard.edu> ehsu@husc9.harvard.edu (Eric Hsu) writes: >The last article was asking for a copy of Snake Byte, claiming it was in the >public domain (I haven't heard about that). I was wondering if there was >anything illegal about distributing pirated copies of a game that is now public >domain (no, I don't have a copy... I was just wondering). > The article didn't "claim" that Snake Byte was in the public domain -- I had heard rumors that it was. If it's not, it's not. A pirated copy of a game still has the copyright on it. A public domain copy probably wouldn't (I say probably, but not necessarily, because freeware can still be copyrighted). If the copyright says no copying, then no, you shouldn't distribute copies. There may be differences with the copyrighted version and the public domain version. I am not looking for pirated software in any form. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lyle H. Gray Internet (personal): gray@cs.umass.edu Quodata Corporation Phone: (203) 728-6777, FAX: (203) 247-0249 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author.