[Scummvm-devel] Re: SCUMM Engine

[J.Brown (Ender/Amigo)]

Hello,
	We appretiate your concerns expressed in the e-mail below
regarding protecting the intellectual intellectual property of LucasArts
'SPU'(tm) engine - (please note that we do not believe this engine was
never called 'SCUMM' inside of LucasArts itself, check with your
programmers).

ScummVM is NOT the SPU engine as used internally by LEC. ScummVM is a
valid clone of the SPU engine, designed to facitiate the playing of
LucasArts adventures on modern machines and operating systems. ScummVM
allows the data from LEC adventures to be played on many platforms (Intel,
PocketPC, etc) and operating systems (Linux, Windows 2000, etc) which qare
not supported by your own SPU(tm) engine.

ScummVM was constructed without any information from LucasArts, using the
discoveries of many other people in the community and valid reverse
engineering techniques by people in several countries. The RE techniques
used are generally protected in most states under what is generally known
as the 'compatability' clause. I'm afraid I am based in Australia and
cannot quote the applicible US equivilents for you at this time, but I am
certain the LEC legal team is aware of the appropriate sections of the
copyright act.

As such, your request is incorrect and we cannot help you. We are
distributing our own software desgined to mimic the functionality of the
SPU(tm) engine, which we have licensed under the GPL (General Public
License). We are not distributing proprietary LucasArts software itself.

We mean no ill harm to LucasArts, and it is well known that many people
(at least 50 to my knowledge, although I am sure there are many more) have
brought classic LEC games simply to play them using our software. I
personally believe that our project has certainly not DAMAGED the
LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC in any financial or intellectual way.
Our emulation may not be perfect, as we are relying on facts and data we
have had to extrapolate ourselves, but over time we believe the ScummVM
project can do justice to the great works of the Lucasarts Entertainment
Company.

I hope this response has eased your concern and that the ScummVM project
and LEC may find a way to work together in the future.

Thank you for your concern,
	James 'Ender' Brown
	Project Leader,
	ScummVM
	http://scummvm.sourceforge.net/

On Mon, 24 Jun 2002, LEC-Legal Affairs wrote:

> Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 16:56:00 -0700
> From: LEC-Legal Affairs <legal_affairs at lucasarts.com>
> To: "'strigeus at users.sourceforge.net'" <strigeus at users.sourceforge.net>,
>      "'yazoo at users.sourceforge.net'" <yazoo at users.sourceforge.net>,
>      "'ender at users.sourceforge.net'" <ender at users.sourceforge.net>
> Subject: SCUMM Engine
>
> Hello: We are contacting you to let you know that the SCUMM engine that is
> referenced on the site controlled by you (scummvm.sourceforge.net) is
> actually still proprietary to LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
> ("LucasArts") and is not released under general public license as referenced
> in the FAQ section on your site.
>
> We are grateful when fans take such strong interests in our games, and we
> hope that your interest continues for many years to come.  However, and in
> order to protect our intellectual property interests, we must ask you to
> take down your site as it infringes on LucasArts's  intellectual property
> ownership interests.  We hope that you understand our need to make this
> request, and we hope that you will comply on or before July 1, 2002 (if you
> need more time, please let us know).  Purely for the record, if the site is
> not voluntarily taken down by the requested time, then we will be forced to
> take steps to ask the service provider (sourceforge.net) that it be taken
> down in accordance with applicable law.
>
> Again, we are grateful for your interests in our games, and this year (our
> 20th Anniversary) promises to be a great one for our company with many great
> games being released.  Thank you, in advance, for your assistance in this
> matter.
>
> Best regards,
>
> LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC
> Business and Legal Affairs
>