9 Feb
2017
9 Feb
'17
12:02 p.m.
On Feb 9, 2017, at 3:34 AM, Daniel Seagraves <dseagrav at lunar-tokyo.net> wrote:
Absent a license from the rightsholder, emulators are
illegal. Full stop, end of sentence. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect
$200.
As others have pointed out, this is not the case.
Remember that Sony purchased the rights to the Virtual Game Station emulator from
Connectix because they lost in court. A reference to the case is on the wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station
It doesn?t matter if the company hasn?t existed since
the late 80s - Someone somewhere owns the IP rights and as soon as they see interest in it
they?re going to see potential dollar signs.
As near as I?ve been able to find, without hiring lawyers to do more in-depth research,
the assets of the former Lisp Machine, Inc. were seized as part of the GigaText affair; do
a Google search for GigaText Guy Montpetit for some details. The IP in this case is likely
owned by either the government of Canada, Saskatchewan, the United States, or
Massachusetts, depending on who did the actual seizing, what entity owned the IP at the
time, and whether the seized assets were ever transferred as a result of the case(s).
Do you have any pointers to the situation being different?
-- Chris