Re: Archiving Apple ][e discs

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Jeff Blakeney wrote:

>On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 11:44:30 -0500, Martin Doherty
><martin.doherty@undisclosed.com> wrote:
>
>>OK no need to answer that last question, there is a thread over in 
>>comp.emulators.apple2 which addressed it thoroughly. One line summary: 
>>copyright exists, but not defended due to negligible commercial value)
>
>You might want to check up on that.  There are some people that
>believe that and continue to tell everyone that but the last time I
>look at US copyright law, I don't recall seeing anything about
>commercial or monetary value.

The illegality of infringing does not depend on the value, only
the legal liability of the infringer does.  And, of course, the
liklihood that anyone cares depends on the value involved.

Simple "illegality" is an issue anytime you walk across the
street in the middle of a block, so I doubt that most people
are much concerned about that.

Whether something is illegal or not has little bearing on
whether it is immoral or not, right-wing fundamentalists to
the contrary.

The strict application of copyright law would result in the
loss of a large fraction of still-extant software for most "obsolete"
platforms, without any compensating value to the copyright
holders.  So the "morality" of preserving copies is certainly
debatable.

Put another way, infringement of a copyright on obsolete
software of no commercial value is a victimless crime--unless
the holder of the copyright finds out about it and takes offense.
(This is an emotional "victimhood"--clearly no one is hurt by acts
that have no effect on them.)  Most people seem to choose to
respect the copyright holder's current wishes when they are
made known.

Given that copyright has been extended well beyond the death
of the copyright owner (and thus far beyond what is stated as
the principle justifying the _limited_ monopoly--to encourage the
creation of new works) it is extrememly likely that literally
_no one_ will care about enforcing, or even be aware of,
the innumerable majority of old and worthless copyrights in
the future.

The rule seems to be that the term of copyright always extends
at least 10 years beyond the present for Mickey Mouse.  That
old copyright is still seen as having great value, and is driving
the laws of our land, sad to say.

-michael

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