Re: Note to QC & PG

[Greg Buchner <nobody@wavetech.net>]

In article <397c54c5$1@hal.grnco.net>, "Arkain" 
<rwking@no.usa.spam.net> wrote:

> The way I see it, assuming that I understand the laws correctly, since 
> some
> of the A2 abandonware is copyrighted by companies that no longer exist, 
> that
> software has no legal copyright attached to it. Since a copyright 
> requires a
> copyright holder, and the copyight holder no longer exists, then the
> copyright in question is legally null & void.

Well, from my understanding of my reading of copyright laws, if the
company no longer exists and the copyrights weren't sold as part of the
assets, then they reverted back to the author(s).  Unfortunately, with
the way copyright laws have been written, it's likely that a lot of
stuff will never have it's copyright lifted, especially if some
companies (ie. Disney) have their way in Congress.

All in all, I'm sure a lot of the copyright holder could care less
about what people are doing with their old software, but wouldn't it
be civilized to at least make an effort to ask them about it?

Greg B.
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