> Note that I am not talking about _using_ an
emulator to run
> copyrighted code. If that's what you were talking about, then I
> misunderstood, and I retract my question.
Yeah, I should have clarified - Using an emulator to
run copyrighted code. I$
However, doesn???t developing the emulator make you an
accessory to the viol$
That would be jurisdiction-specific, probably to be settled by case law
in most jurisdictions. However, there are people (and companies) with
legitimate copies of the protected code; an emulator is a useful thing
for them (for example, if I had a machine and it broke, I may want to
continue running software written for it). I suspect (though it is a
non-lawyer's guess) that any such case would hinge on how provable
intent-to-infringe was.
To pick an analogy, I have been working on a MicroVAX-II emulator. For
it to be useful, you need the ROM image from the board. That software
is copyrighted - but I own a KA-630 and thus have a legitimate copy of
it. (The emulator is nevertheless useful to me, since I lack other
hardware to surround the KA-630 with to make a useful system, notably
disks.)
Consider also MAME.
As for a LispM emulator, personally, what I'd like to do (but don't
have the resources to do and have other things I'd prefer to put my
time into) would be to develop an emulator - with a legitimate copy of
the software to test it against - then work on developing an
alternative, open, system to run on it. (I've used (Symbolics) Lisp
Machines, and, as much as I like them, there are numerous things I
would prefer the OS did differently.)
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