Re: No rights, was Re: Syndicomm Scam

["Bill Buckels" <bbuckels@mts.net>]

"D Finnigan" <dog_cow@macgui.com> wrote:

> Eric Shepherd wrote:
> I have a legitimate license to distribute the APDA products, inherited 
> from The Byte Works.  I fulfilled my obligation to fax Apple a document 
> indicating that the license had been transferred.

So far so good. Sheppy has a licence from Apple to distribute APDA products 
which presumably includes the operating systems and the other APDA stuff 
that developers require. I was an APDA developer, long ago. Do I qualify as 
a purchaser? I wasn't aware that I needed to. So are these legal copies that 
I purchased from Syndicomm?

Setting aside the fact that there are presumably conditions on that licence, 
the licence itself has descended until this point through voluntary 
transfers:

This seems to be an established defacto (or dejure) practice which includes:
  1.. the right to use the good
  2.. the right to earn income from the good
  3.. the right to transfer the good to others
  4.. the right to enforcement of property rights.
Setting that aside for the moment, Mr. Diaz may not have needed to fax Apple 
a document indicating that Syndicomm's ownership dejure had been 
transferred, since the ownership of the licence (either defacto or dejure) 
resides with Syndicomm.

Assuming that in fact the transfer of ownership of Syndicomm did not require 
due diligence on behalf of the Licencor to ensure that Syndicomm under Mr. 
Diaz is acceptable, the following sounds like Eric is sharing his fear,  but 
did not actually check with his lawyer, and may not have had anything to 
fear as long the rest of us were happy (but you folks don't sound happy):

> I don't know how aware Apple is that I do in fact have that license.  I 
> hesitate to call them up and talk to them about it, because if they're 
> reminded of the existence of the license, they might opt to cancel it,

I would have kept quiet as well. Copyright enforcement is at the discretion 
of the Copyright Holder.

> in which case we're all kind of screwed. :)

I fail to see how unless black helicopters with Apple Logos descend on us 
all. I do however think that any of us at any time could make a case that as 
a collective we have the right to control the use of any good distributed by 
Syndicomm, and we in fact as a collective hold the same defacto rights that 
Syndicomm holds. The licence sounds like a privilege and not a right at all. 
Or perhaps it is not an exclusive right. Perhaps we all have the same 
"legitimate" licence.

So I don't disagree with you David.  The abandonware argument that someone 
else made holds water. If Apple has done nothing and this has gone-on for 
years, it would be very difficult to enforce. I doubt if Mr. Diaz could 
enforce this. It's not Primagenitor! There are no kings when it comes to 
licence agreements or lack thereof.

Bill