Re: Ancient wares and present values

[Roy and/or Janet Miller <millers@inetnebr.com>]

A version of Crossword Magic is up for bid on eBay, opening bid $3.50

Roy

Frank Townsend wrote:

> Sure, one can draw that conclusion, but it is somewhat irrelevant to the
> issue of property rights that I was addressing, and is not how copyright law
> operates.
>
> The initial post by Flaymerz premised the opinion that there is no financial
> loss on the assertion that L&S Computerware is out of business.  But that
> assertion clouds the fact that the assets of L&S (no doubt including any
> intellectual property) are owned by another firm which is very much *in*
> business.
>
> Thus, finders keepers does not apply, any more than it would with any other
> type of property that an owner possesses.
>
> It is also misleading to maintain that lack of value defeats intellectual
> property rights.  It only limits potential damages.
>
> Finally, Nimbus' parent company is Technicolor (yes, *that* Technicolor).
> Altogether, 15 minutes of netting around is all it took to discover the
> likely legal owner of Crossword Magic 2.0.  A little more effort (drafting
> and mailing a letter to Nimbus' corporate counsel) might be all it would
> take to ascertain their wishes with regard to copyrighted software owned by
> the company.
>
> Why not ask?  Legalities aside, it would seem to be the polite way of
> handling such a matter.
>
> Nimbus Manufacturing, Inc.
> 623 Welsh Run Road, Ruckersville, VA  22968
>
> Frank Townsend  (off to the pool in Baltimore, Maryland)
>
> Rubywand wrote in message <39573D85.9A861C78@swbell.net>...
> >Frank Townsend writes ...
> >>
> >> Flaymerz wrote in message <200006260345.XAA10159@anon.cotse.com>...
> >>
> >> >If I want to play with Crossword Magic 2.0 from 1981,
> >> >I'm surely not going to wait for it to show up on eBay or
> >> >post a wanted-to-buy ad here.  I'll download it.  L&S
> >> >Computerware -- the entity being protected by copyright
> >> >-- would not suffer any financial loss by my
> >> >downloading it because they haven't been in business
> >> >for YEARS.
> >>
> >> Interestingly enough L&S Computerware is, in a sense, still in business.
> >>
> >> L&S was a trade name of HLS Duplication, Inc.  In 1995,
> >> HLS was acquired by, and made a subsidiary of,
> >> Nimbus Manufacturing Inc.  The subsidiary was
> >> known as Nimbus Software Services until 1997 when Nimbus Mfg. closed the
> >> plant in Sunnyvale, Ca.
> >>
> >> Thus, unless the copyright was otherwise sold or transferred, the current
> >> copyright holder of Crossword Magic 2.0 is Nimbus Manufacturing Inc.,
> >> very much a going concern.
> >>
> >> Ironically, Nimbus has developed anti piracy tools, and apparently has a
> >> deep interest in copyright issues..
> >>
> >> You can call the company's US offices at
> >>
> >> NIMBUS MANUFACTURING INC
> >> Ruckersville, VA 22968
> >>
> >> 804 985 1100
> >>
> >
> >     Speaking of interesting observations, you might consider how you came
> to
> >discover Nimbus (and post a Nimbus mini-commercial on the world's largest
> >Apple II forum). It was through an interest in a 1981 Apple II product.
> >
> >     Obviously, the game itself has zero commercial value. At the price it
> >could be sold, the costs of dealing with any orders or shareware fees would
> >far exceed the revenues from sales.
> >
> >     Suppose the rights owner should request free access to end. The
> standard
> >practice of the archives would be to delist Crossword Magic 2.0.
> >
> >     Once the product were delisted it would, at last, be just about
> totally
> >worthless to the rights owner. Commercial value would still be zero and
> there
> >would be no opportunity for new users to download Crossword Magic 2.0 and
> >wonder about "L&S Computerware" and discover Nimbus and think about buying
> >Nimbus software.