Re: AppleWorks GS and reclassification

[CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney)]

On 11 Apr 2000 03:30:03 GMT, cturley2@aol.com (Cturley2) wrote:

>I did that (with a few other things also) with Sound Ace and the author signed
>over the program and the copyright to me and 1WSW.  I have a digitized scan
>jpeg of his letter to this effect also visible to view from my web site.  Yet
>it is still disputed by many that I never owned the copyright to Sound Ace.  
>
>Willie Yeo for one - has yet to make varification - yet the authors name,
>address for contact and tel. number are all still valid for contact.  The
>information was in the program documentation when I first made it 
>available to the public as a copyright freeware - several years ago. It's
>also clearly visible in the copyright transfer letter scan jpeg on my
>web site.  Wille seems to want to make his varifications only by email
>though, which of course is free.

There is your problem right there.  Apparently Treasure Chest and Lost
Classics and anyone else who may have tried have been unable to get
verification from the (supposedly) previous copyright owner that the
rights to Sound Ace have been transferred to you so that they can have
proof that your claim that it has been reclassified to public domain
is valid.

Once Treasure Chest and Lost Classics get proof of the transfer of the
rights to you they will then ask you to provide them with a letter
stating your reclassification of them as public domain before either
of them will make it available.

>This was an easy one for me.  But, it was costly involving several long
>distance telephone calls by me - at my expense to obtain the transfer
>of the copyright to me and 1WSW.  I never made one penny with it
>either and never intended to!  So, "All it takes is mailing a signed and
>witnessed letter to someone that states the change in status" is not
>the only way to do it.   It can be very involved and very expensive.

When I said that reclassifying a product didn't have to be costly, I
meant from the perspective of the copyright holder.

If you want a product bad enough and want to get it legally it will
take an investment of your time and possibly your money to get it
reclassified.  If the cost to you is too high then your only hope to
get a legal copy is that the owner reclassifies it themselves or at
the request of someone else or track down an original.

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