News items from a2central.com

[cturley2@aol.com (Cturley2)]

I noticed two items this morning when reading ALL of the daily Apple
II news online.  From a2central.com the following two news item�s
caught my eye - partial fair use quotes follow from those news items:

1) �New Poll: If Al Gore were an Apple II, which one would he be?�

Having no interest in mixing politics or politicians with Apple II 
computers I passed this one by.  But the second item certainly deserves 
a full comment on.

2) �Confusion ensues over status of Merlin software�

�Earlier this week, Glen Bredon's widow, Anne Bredon, released his 
software�including the popular Merlin assembler�as public domain, 
including the source code. Some confusion has now arisen as to whether 
or not the release of Merlin is valid, as�at least when it was being 
sold�its copyright was held not by Glen Bredon, but by Roger Wagner 
Publishing....�

Back in 1996 - I did an interview with Glen Bredon in which he
stated he would eventually furnish me with all of his Apple software
with the src. codes for either freeware or public domain
distribution.

Ref. URL: 

http://www.grin.net/~cturley/Glen.Bredon.In.Memoriam/Interview.1996.html

A full quote follows from that interview:

� Q - The Apple II and IIGS community and their users are longing
for some new programs or even some old formerly unavailable
programs. When can they expect to see any of your currently
unreleased Apple programs and what status would you be willing to
release them as; shareware, freeware or perhaps even public domain
with the src. codes?

A - Well, I've released a lot of programs in the past that were
either; shareware or commercial. I'm going to thing seriously about
making them all available by sending them to you with a letter of
authorization, to re-release them as freeware and/or public domain.
I have several other useful ideas for scientific and math type
programs, that I will eventually send you - for release in this
manner also!

Hopefully, they may find some usefulness within the Apple II and
IIGS user and programming community. I may well even release the
src. codes also, to allow others to study them and use or even
improve their routines. With respect to Merlin, if you can make
arrangements for its release to the public, with Roger Wagner, I
think that would be a good idea! I'm certainly willing to do it!�

I�ve been sitting on the following confidential information from the date 
of that interview until today.  Now it�s time to bring this information
to the attention of the general public.

Shortly after the interview by telephone, back in 1996 - I contacted
both Roger Wagner and Mike Westerfield about releasing Merlin as
Glen mentioned in the interview.  Roger informed me that he did not
hold the copyright to Merlin but had a lic. with Glen to sell and
distribute Merlin and that he was not even sure if the lic. was
still in effect or valid as he had not sold more than a few copies
of Merlin during the past two or three years.  He said he�d contact
Glen about his desires on reclassification and have Glen contact me
or I could contact him myself on the matter.

I then contacted Mike Westerfield by telephone (Mike having the
Orca/M title for commercial sale) - I wanted his thoughts on
releasing Merlin then by Glen in such a status as either freeware
and/or publi domain.  Mike strongly objected to this - saying that he
thought such a release of Merlin would harm the sale of Orca/M and
with his contacting Glen and Roger - the desires expressed by Glen
concerning the reclassification and release of Merlin as either
freeware or public domain was put to rest then in 1996 and nothing
from Glen directly resulted until after his passing away in May.

As you all should know and may have read in my past post on this
newsgroup, I contacted his wife Anne, drove to her home in Central
California on Aug. 13th and obtained an email and hand written note
from her placing all of Glen Bredon�s Apple software into public
domain with their src. codes, she gave me all of his Apple software
to take back home, sort, varify, archive and upload for public
domain online distribution - which I have now done with all of his
major Apple software titles - including Merlin.

I will soon upload it all to the Apple II ftp site - Ground. It is
all currently available for download as public domain from my web
site URL noted below:

http://www.grin.net/~cturley/Glen.Bredon.In.Memoriam/A2.Software/

I have followed both Glen Bredon and his wife Anne�s wishes and 
desire per their information, email and communication with the
distribution of Merlin and all other Apple programs written by 
Glen Bredon.  Should I be advised of any change in anything, I�ll
post such to this newsgroup on the matter - promptly.

Cheers,
Tom