First and foremost, this appears to be nothing more than a no-so-elaborate hack. Releasing disassembled ASM hardly qualifies it as “Open Source”, and adding a front-end does not constitute a new project. To claim so is a slap in the face to all the hard work emulator authors have put in over the years.
Ignoring that point, and assuming that the merits of the “continued” GiriGiri are true, it is hardly legal. The Cassini team claims a few things that are simply not true. They claim that Sega did not renew their copyright, and thus the emulator has entered into the Public Domain. As proof, they have been using an e-mail from Sega of America Technical Support.
First, as anyone who has ever contacted a corporate customer support line, I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting most support technicians walk my dog, let alone decide the legal status of intellectual property. Lawyers are needed to renounce a copyright, not low level technical support.
Second, copyrights are not up for renewal, and could not yet have expired. Neither in US Law, Japanese law, or from the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (1971,
http://www.law.cornell.edu/treaties/berne/overview.html ) does a copyright expire any earlier than 50 years after the work has been made available to the public. From Article VII of the Berne Convention:
(1) The term of protection granted by this Convention shall be the life of the author and fifty years after his death.
…
(3) In the case of anonymous or pseudonymous works, the term of protection granted by this Convention shall expire fifty years after the work has been lawfully made available to the public. However, when the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity, the term of protection shall be that provided in paragraph (1). If the author of an anonymous or pseudonymous work discloses his identity during the above-mentioned period, the term of protection applicable shall be that provided in paragraph (1). The countries of the Union shall not be required to protect anonymous or pseudonymous works in respect of which it is reasonable to presume that their author has been dead for fifty years.
GiriGiri is NOT in the Public Domain. At best, it is abandonware, which is still illegal to redistribute as your own. Even that distinction is questionable. As per EmuHelp policy, we do not condone the distribution of illegal software.
It is Team Cassini’s responsibility to prove that the intellectual property has fallen into Public Domain use. The Burden of Proof is on them. If an e-mail from a technical support representative, who’s not qualified to make that decision, from a company who doesn’t even own the copyright (the e-mail came from Sega of America, Sega of Japan is the legal copyright owner), and who tells them to contact the Legal Department, is enough proof for Team Cassini, so be it. If they do not feel the need to look up copyright law, and to take “Sandi’s” advice and further inquire with the Legal Department, then that is their prerogative. However, at EmuHelp, we are going to be a little more responsible in these matters. Until legal notice from Sega of Japan, we will consider GiriGiri to still be property of Sega.
Ignorance is not an acceptable defense in a court of law.
