We've Been SLAPPed

Thanks for the info, hal. Unfortunately the thread, ending as it does, doesn't really answer the question on whether Roland claimed anything else except breach of their copyright in the ROMs, nor whether or not their consideration on allowing an emulator without ROMs included had merit or was mere legal FUD.

Your best bet would be to contact either Canadacow or the ScummVM crew to see if there has been any progress.

DOSBox crew isn't interested in any legal complications.

DosFreak wrote:

DOSBox crew isn't interested in any legal complications.

While I don't like the fact that corporations can get away with baseless* claims simply because private citizens don't have the financial and legal means to defend themselves, I assume that that's how life works these days, and I certainly wasn't implying that DOSBox should take legal risks.

*I'm not saying the claims in this particular case are baseless - this is just a general statement.

My interpretation is that Canadacow was correct, but that it didn't matter, since the Roland legal team just took the view of ignoring it and vaguely threaten everyone in sight in the hope that the status quo continues. It worked too (except scummvm apparently).

Not that i give a shit about the roms. I don't recall exactly if the roms were being distributed - if so that is a large faux pas by the mt32 team even if their interpretation is correct.

Umm i read that thread. Restored work heh?

The plutocracy continues its onward march.

Serious Callers Only wrote:

The plutocracy continues its onward march.

Perhaps, if the original authors had attempted to contact Roland with an intent to assist in the creation of a marketable product, we'd have had the option of purchasing official MT-32 emulation years ago.

Also, I haven't seen it mentioned, but the PCM ROM samples in question are not exclusive to the MT-32, and might therefore be protected by existing copyrights for other Roland products.

Perhaps, if the original authors had attempted to contact Roland with an intent to assist in the creation of a marketable product, we'd have had the option of purchasing official MT-32 emulation years ago.

Unlikely because the correspondence was only with lawyers.

if so that is a large faux pas by the mt32 team

Whoa of course Canadacow is just stupid and stuff, we always knew it!
If you want to achieve something, stop posting things like that.

wd wrote:

Perhaps, if the original authors had attempted to contact Roland with an intent to assist in the creation of a marketable product, we'd have had the option of purchasing official MT-32 emulation years ago.

Unlikely because the correspondence was only with lawyers.

It may yet be worthwhile to send a letter to the presidents of both Roland Japan and Roland US, and simply state that demand remains for the development of a software MT-32/CM-32L synthesizer, either as a standalone product, like the Virtual SoundCanvas, or licensed for inclusion with DosBox.

I'll willingly donate $1000 toward any such licensing fee.

Feel free to send such a letter, maybe talk to Canadacow before doing that though.

Cloudschatze wrote:

I'll willingly donate $1000 toward any such licensing fee.

Wow, are you serious? And do you mean United States dollars? If so, more power to you by all means.

Though I fear that any statement in such a letter along the lines of "there is demand for..." will just light up the $$$ signs in a company rep's eyes, rather than make them willing to give a license, whether for free or for $1000. It's a thin line to tread between making Roland interested enough in this for them to be willing to sell a license, but not so interested as to try to cash in on that perceived demand themselves.

IMHO, IANAL, YMMV, etc.