[Coco] [Color Computer] Ira's Archive (trs-80.com) Available For Download

[Rick R.]

Dear Eugene,

I too, for the most part, have remained silent about this whole discussion of the TRS-80 archives.  But don't you think your
being a bit over zealous?!!  Granted, you might have written/re-written things for these computers, but what we are talking
about is software for computers that haven't been made for more than 20 years!!  Just how much money (and that is what
your message eludes to) do you think you'd earn from old and outdated software?  Do you stand to join the ranks of Bill 
Gates or Steve Jobs?  I doubt it.  Will you finally be able to afford that million dollar home you've been dreaming about?
Probably not.  Will you be able to go out and buy that new car you've had your eye on?  I don't think so.  It's even more
unlikely that the sale of said software would even put you into a different tax bracket.  Almost all of the "major players"
have either released their software into the public domain or just plain gave up on them.  You, on the other hand, seem to be acting in bad faith and with greed.  

This is simply a SMALL community of vintage computer users (certainly not their primary computer or even the one being 
used to read this message) just helping out one another.  They're just having fun.  Call it nostalgia...call it what you like.  
No one is out to purposely cheat you out of anything.   That is why I, personally, find your Cease and Desist notice to be 
utterly redicules.  Even if you were to persue legal action, it would cost you more in doing so than what you would stand 
to gain otherwise.

My challenge to you, Gene, is this:  Create a website and make your code available for sale again.  What kind of support will 
you offer?  Will there be any updates?  Let's see just how many hits your site gets.  I would be interested to learn just how
successful that would be for you.  My guess is that you probably wouldn't even make enough money to even cover the cost
of hosting the files much less the text promoting your business.

By making these comments I may be opening myself up for either heavy criticizm or wild applause.  Either way, I don't care.  
I just feel that you, sir, do not have my best interests at heart.  The people offering these archives are doing so as a gesture 
of good will and honest intent.  For you do sh*t on this gesture puts only you in a bad light.  Should you decide to offer your
software for sale again, I wish you better success this time around (however unlikely that may be).

Good Day.

Rick Rotaru

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Gene Heskett 

  I've more or less stayed out of this till now, but AISI, this is a more blatant copyright violation than anything else we've ever done in this group under the guise of "Preserving history". Ira has made it plain that *you* do NOT have permission, and that should be as far as it goes. If any of my work is in that collection (and I do not know, but its possible since I did write/re-write some useful tools for os9), consider this as a Cease and Desist notice. ...