[Coco] Copyright

[Allen Huffman]

Interesting ideas, Gene. I like copyright as long as it can be renewed... I think of games that went away, then became orphanware, then came back as hot sellers (like a 25th Anniversary edition). Had they fallen in to public domain after seven years, they may ever have gotten a shot to do anything.

So... What happens when the copyright holder cannot be found? When I was first getting in to computers, I seem to recall you had to register things to be copyright. But, an update made everything copyright by default...

So if the author dies, and no heirs... What should happen?

If Tandy owns copyright, but no longer exists because someone else bought then and couldn't find the records if they had to (that's pretty much happened), what should happen?

Like trademark, you have to fight to keep it and prove it's active... But with copyright, I might write something called "2025" planning on it being a huge seller in the year 2025 and if I do nothing with it until then, I wouldn't want to lose it, and I also don't want to be fighting people off for a decade defending the rights to my stuff.

Tandy owns many copyrights... Is there a challenge clause? Prove you want to keep this or we will make it public domain?