Re: Different Idea... (WAS Re: Net piracy?)

[tolsen@netcom.com (Terry R. Olsen)]

Tim Haynes (thaynes@maplesoft.on.ca) wrote:

: Here's an idea...

: What if I am using my Apple II to do some actual business, like some
: financial stuff.  And, one day, looking through my Nibble archive, I see
: this advert for a program that does everything I need.  Wow!  So, I call the
: 1-800 number to order it.  

: Whups -- it's out of circulation.  The software company went belly-up, and
: there is no software order place in existence that will sell this thing to me.
: I try to pick it up on comp.sys.apple2.marketplace, but nobody's willing to
: part with theirs.  What do I do?

This is exactly the point I was trying to make earlier.  But I've heard 
stories of auto manufacturers buying extremely efficient engine designs 
just to shelf them to keep people from making and using them.  So I guess 
it's possible to remove something from circulation and still hold the 
copyright on it.  BUT...

There is such a thing as being TOO "by the book".  Say a neighbor friend 
of mine picked up an old Apple //e at a flea market.  He has no software 
for it but has went to a used computer store and bought some second hand 
software for it.  He comes over to my house and watches me play Leisure 
Suit Larry.  He checks the store and they don't have it.  He calls Sierra 
and they don't sell it anymore.  After exausting all possible "legal" 
ways to obtain this software, he comes to me and asks if he can copy 
mine.  What am I to say?  "Sorry, Bud...you're just S.O.L."