Re: Building An Apple ][ Software Archive

["Kelli Halliburton" <kelli217@crosswinds.not>]

Simple. Make the archive a write-only storage. No public access. Private
access limited only to the administrator(s). If someone submits a piece of
software for cataloguing and archiving, they should be allowed to retreive a
copy, but only of the software they submitted.

"Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill" <wbdesnoy@ucalgary.ca> wrote in message
news:87Mx5.5268$m8.1070605@news1.telusplanet.net...
> The problem with an archive is that it has (a) been done before, and
> has been shut down; (b) represents some form of piracy, no matter how
> it is structured; and (c) has little historical significance.
>
> A lot of these "memories" which you are talking about are not really
> memories, it is indiscriminant piracy.  Asimov was not, for example, a
> good site to find good memories because nothing was catalogued.  If
> you wanted to find a game that you loved at Asimov, you guessed from
> the filenames, and you prey that the image was not corrupt.  The "Apple
> IIgs Gaming Memory Fairway" is a much better example as to how such
> archives should be structured.
>
> The problem is that indiscriminant piracy does not allow us to tackle
> problems with copyright law.  C-42 (the Canadian Copyright Act), for
> example, states that:
>
>   6. The term for which copyright shall subsist shall, except as otherwise
>   expressly provided by this Act, be the life of the author, the remainder
of the
>   calendar year in which the author dies, and a period of fifty years
following
>   the end of that calendar year.
>
> This term is stupendously long for the software industry, where finding
> software 10 years after the date of publication (new or used) is quite
> difficult.  From the discussion of media longevity (diskettes, PROMs) in
> this newsgroup, if the author died the day after the software was
> published, the software nor intended platform would exist (in an operable)
> form once the copyright expires.  This neglects the fact that there are
> very few of us who have the time, finances, and interest to gather and
> preserve the software in the first place.
>
> Without the loosening of these laws, archives will be going up and down
> like yo-yo's, or being hosted in foreign countries with slack laws or
> law enforcement.  Even if archives like tarnover and asimov were permitted
> to survive, then their lasting value would be negligible: with no
> systematic cataloguing, software will be difficult to find.  There will
> be no reference for the integrity of existing originals (eg. checksums),
> and there will be no record of the significance of one piece of software
> vs. another (even if it is from the biased perspective of those who still
> exist), there will be no basis for those who want to argue against
> copyright law based on dormant claims, and there will be few records
> for people who want software released in to the public domain (by the
> author) to work from.
>
> Breaking the law over and over again is not the way to challenge copyright
> law.  We will loose.  Even if the piracy is not indiscriminant, say we
> limit ourself to software 15 years or older, the law (or, more probably,
> the complainants) will not discriminate.  *If* industry ever views this
> form of piracy as a threat, then our only hope is to change the law.  So
> that is where we should begin.
>
> Byron.
>
> atanasmarkov@my-deja.com wrote:
> > "Byron Q. Desnoyers Winmill" <wbdesnoy@ucalgary.ca> wrote:
> >> While not a software archive per say, creating a catalogue of known
> >> Apple II software might be useful.
>
> >> > I propose that we build a software archive.
>
> > hey, the idea for the archive is great! if we make a catalog only we'll
> > loose the only chanca to save what's remaining from the Apple ][
> > software. there's lots of software lost forever and if we continue
> > waiting for the rest of the software to become freeware it'll be too
> > late. i know there are thousands of Apple programs and games(see
> > Bitcopy or Apple history) and i have seen 5-10% of these things. I know
> > some collectors that have let's say 30-40% of these, but you know that
> > these lists aren't full. so should we wait till the software disappears?
> > i suggest we make a really big archive of everything available now! we
> > must save the memories for Apple II. and you know there are lot's of
> > copyrighted things for the Apple II, but do you think anything can be
> > sold? so why do companies still keep their copyrights? they all have to
> > do what Apple did- make their software freeware.