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Re: Software on Old Disks
John B. Matthews wrote:
In article <6xfZe.2635$G64.1509@newssvr12.news.prodigy.com>,
Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com> wrote:
[...]
Then how do you explain publishers that are still supporting the Apple
II by writing programs, that gives you the right to that persons
programs and use them without compensation or without their permission?
I still write Apple II software, and I rely on copyright to protect my
interests. I generally distribute such work under the license found
here: <http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html>. My point was that such
rights and obligations are mutual under copyright law.
If the program has been abandoned and is not being supported in any way,
then maybe. I hold the rights to the Apple II BBS program GBBS, right
now it is not being sold, but as I have had time I'm updating it to work
with the Y2k problems it had as well as updating it to be able to work
over the Internet. I may not be selling it, but I am working on the
program and still own the rights, with by the way, I paid a lot more
then it was worth at the time to save it because Lance was going to dump
it. I have found a few sits where it was up and had it removed. But I
have not done anything to a few systems that are up which don't seem to
have bought it, that does not mean I can't, the law does allow me and as
a member of the Software Publishers Association, could have them take
action against anyone using or distributing the program.
I love GBBS! I operated a GBBS board for several years on behalf of a
local computer club. Lance gave us great support. I wrote a segment that
made the BBS appear to have crashed into Applesoft. It gave joke answers
to commands in a manner similar to Bruce Tognazzini's Super Hi-res Chess
program (ca. 1978). It amused the kids who frequented the board no end.
I remember seeing that segment, there was another one like it which
acted like it had detected a Hacker
As you consider what model to use for distributing your software, I urge
you to consider the advantages of open source:
<http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/case_for_business.php>
Do you mean the ACOS code? It has alway bee open for owners to make
segments to work with it, if you mean real changes, I'm not sure about
that, years ago MACOS came out of it and it had real problems.
My main problem is the Y2K problem, the date is hard coded in to many
segments as well as code in the ACOS and compiler. The segment code can
either be updated to reflect the new date, or written to mean something
or read a separate segment or code. The ACOS will have to be made to
read either a system clock or ProDOS and that could be a problem since
no real fixes were made to ProDOS and the ones that were had bugs. It
all takes time and I have not had a lot of it, plus as good as I was
with the code for writing segments, the ACOS always was a bit of a
mystery to me
It would allow you to ignore the mooches and focus on your supported
customers.
What is your plan for existing customers?
I have given some updates; a couple of years ago, just for costs.
It would depend on what version the had. As I said, the way it would be
distributed as Shareware for a fee of $25.00 which would just about
cover my costs. I have a couple of boxes of cards listing owners, but
they are not in any real order and systems have been sold given to
others and such. I have not had a lost of time to do much. I just got
back from the Middle East for the second time, not Military, but it was
for them and now with the problems in the southern US, I may have to go
there; I'm a Telecom Network Engineer.
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