OverClocked #20 “And The Winners Are…”

I would like to thank David Lloyd for permitting me to publish his strip. OverClocked #20 “And the Winners Are…”

First published @ http://www.overclocked.org/.

An Introduction for the Emulation Community

“One flew over Pac-Man’s Nest” contains information regarding the technical facts of emulation in relation to law, with a particular, but not exclusive, eye to European Law. Although not all of the existing emulators are covered individually, I have chosen to refer to those which serve as a typical example. You do not have to be a lawyer or have legal knowledge in order to follow the meaning of it but, it may be occasionally hard to follow, especially with regards to language, as I have written this text as part of my Law Masters degree. Similarly, some limitations had to apply, for example a word limit. Although one cannot claim that it covers all the potential aspects to their entirety, competition law for example being omitted, it is my view from what reading I have done that my findings would not differ a lot had I covered everything. Be warned however!!!!! Law, especially European, is not static but rather depends upon interpretation. Although I strongly believe that according to law the interpretation should be such so as to reach the conclusions that I have, a court may have a different opinion. As I said again, it is not an easy reading all the way down and for general purposes I would recommend to read Sam Pettus’ Emufaq which is a more relaxed text with more general information, despite the fact that it is US law cantered. If you would like however to read a more “legal” and “technical” document and, especially if you are a programmer, see the legal status of some actions, then I think that this is your “book”, regardless of being or not a European citizen. The text is presented in electronic form, exactly as it was submitted to the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England in September 2000, but for this introduction.

Questions, suggestions and objections should be addressed at takist@netscape.net

Takis Tsiricos, October 1^st, 2000