[Coco] Peeks, Pokes, Execs on-line

[Neil Morrison]

If you can find the copyright owner, do so and ask permission. If you can't, 
which is worse, to publish it on the web or to lose it forever? Much has 
already been lost, never to be seen again. We should have started a grand 
collection years ago, but it's only now that we all realise what we are 
losing. Even Bill Gates, the most notorious copyright defender, offered to 
publish his original 8-bit Basic source code in some form. He then found out 
he had lost it and no longer had a copy!

I know people who sell $1 million software - who no longer have a complete 
set of sources!

Neil

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <farna at att.net>


> Morally it's wrong. Someone owns a copyright to it. Legally it's wrong for 
> the same reason, but someone has to file a complaint. Since the amount of 
> damages is so miniscule, the only thing they are likely to do is issue a 
> "cease and desist" order, that's if they actually do consult a lawyer. 
> Since there is no money in it for him, that's what most lawyers recommend. 
> Only if you continue after that is there much value in suing, and then 
> it's a fine imposed by the court and usually the defending lawyers fees, 
> sometimes out of the fine, sometimes in addition. But they DO have to show 
> that you were contacted and/or they attempted to rectify the situation out 
> of court. Very few people are willing to put up $5K or so in lawyer fees 
> on principle.
>
> Practically, no one really cares about it any more, and there is really no 
> profit to be made. Even if it were available through legal channels it 
> would likely be to expensive to buy because there are so few potential 
> buyers. Definitely wouldn't be worth while. That's why I gave all rights 
> to everything I had to the people who would see it distributed -- Glenside 
> CoCo Club. I also put it all in PD after they okayed it. THAT is what 
> should be done to "orphanware" after a 5-10 year period. Retaining rights 
> on software after 10 years is really stupid, as most outlives it's 
> usefulness in 2-3 years. Now if a company is still publishing a version of 
> it, especially with some small amount of code left from the original, 
> that's a lot different.