[Coco] The dire condition of software documentation..

[rietveld rietveld]

" Copyright issues are never vague. The holder being out of business
> has no effect on the Copyright, legally. The item is still Copyrighted."




It is true that the owner of the copyright on an orphan work may well be unlikely to sue for infringement of that copyright. The owner may not even know that s/he owns the copyright. But a user could never by fully safe, because the owner (or a new owner after a transfer) could always choose to sue for any continuing infringement, and any past one if the statute of limitations has not run out.