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copyrights on old ROMs ?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:43 am
by jedie
What's about copyright on Dragon ROM code?
Is there any official statement?

Dragon Data is dead. But the BASIC comes from Microsoft and they sill alive ...

Re: copyrights on old ROMs ?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:16 pm
by admin
Technically they must still hold the copyright - but I doubt they are bothered about enforcing it.

Re: copyrights on old ROMs ?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:32 pm
by Sarah
I think the rumours 20 or so years ago were that the copyright passed to Prudential plc however I've no idea whether or not that holds any truth or what the current situation may be. It's difficult to imagine that anyone at Prudential plc would have the slightest idea about such an old low value asset now either, really.

Re: copyrights on old ROMs ?

Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:45 pm
by admin
Well I know a man who has the original source code for the Dragon 32 version - including hand written notes on the print out........ However when last contacted he wasn't about to let that fall into our hands due to potential copyright issues.

Re: copyrights on old ROMs ?

Posted: Tue Oct 08, 2013 7:52 am
by jedie
admin wrote:Well I know a man who has the original source code for the Dragon 32 version - including hand written notes on the print out........ However when last contacted he wasn't about to let that fall into our hands due to potential copyright issues.
To have that, would be very cool!

The CoCo Basic Unravelled series books contains a disassembly ROM codes:

EXTENDED BASIC UNRAVELLED II:
EXTENDED COLOR BASIC 1.1
COPYRIGHT (C) 1982 BY TANDY
UNDER LICENSE FROM MICROSOFT
COLOR BASIC UNRAVELLED II
COLOR BASIC 1.2
(C) 1982 TANDY
MICROSOFT
SUPER EXTENDED BASIC UNRAVELLED II
DISK EXTENDED COLOR BASIC 2.1
COPR. 1981, 1986 BY TANDY
UNDER LICENSE FROM MICROSOFT
AND MICROWARE SYSTEMS CORP.