Re: Shareware...

[joko@well.sf.ca.us (Joe Kohn)]

In article <1992Nov2.172908.16388@galileo.cc.rochester.edu> mh001b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Matthew W. Hacker) writes:
>
>  All this talk about FTA folding has raised a question to me.
>What happens to a shareware product when the authors are no
>longer contactable? (for lack of a better word)
>  Does it become freeware?  Is it still 'legal' to use?  How
>hard to I have to try when I try to get a hold of the author
>to pay?
>
>
>
>-- 
>+---------------
>Matthew W. Hacker                           mh001b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
>                                            AppleII forever!


Software that is copyrighted remains copyrighted. Just because a compnay has
gone out of business, that has no effect on the copyright of a product.
Someone, either the company owner or the programmer or the heirs, still hold
a valid copyright.

Or, to be more direct about it...

The fact that a company or organization no longer exists is not
justification for pirating their software.

As it is with the FTA, it's a moot point, as everything they ever released
was freeware, with Photonix being the one exception. The original Photonix
was released as shareware. But, when the FTA disbanded, they sold the rights
to Photonix II (or at least licensed the rights - I don't know the details)
to Big Red Computer Club, and it is now a commercial product, available for
sale from BRCC.

Joe Kohn