Re: Abandonware petition

[a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

"Brendon Woirhaye" <bytre@nospam.com> wrote:

>Although this is an honourable idea, it isn't as simple as it looks.
>
>I did some research a couple months back into Copy ][+, which is owned by
>the company that I work for (Symantec Corporation, which acquired Central
>Point about 8 or 9 years back).  Although the company has no financial
>interest in the old product, and won't prosecute anyone for using an
>unlicensed copy or even distributing it, the company cannot afford to
>release it as public domain.
>
>You see, it is possible that an old product may have used libraries or other
>code licensed from another company or individual.  For a company to release
>a product as public domain, it needs to make absolutely sure it owns the
>entire rights to do so - and that requires legal research.  Particularly a
>company with big assets which may be a legal target.
>
>Thus is the case for Symantec.  We cannot afford to take the legal risk of
>releasing the software, and cannot justify the expense of the legal research
>(which would probably cost tens of thousands of dollars for Copy ][+).
>
>Some companies may be able to take the risk or in full control of their
>assets, but many others are probably in Symantec's situation - we'd like to
>do it, but can't take the risk.

    Although not quite for the same reasons, I've run into similar
problems when trying to get Apple II software titles reclassified.

    For example, I managed to track down Will Harvey, author
of many well-know Apple II classics (i.e. Zany Golf, Marble
Madness, The Immortal, Music Construction Set) and spoke
to him about rereleasing his software as freeware. 

    Will said he absolutely doesn't mind if people copy and treat 
his old Apple II/IIgs titles as freeware, but in order to make it 
legal Electronic Arts would have to give the "ok" as they retain 
the publishing rights. Well guess what happened when
I tried contacting EA about it...

    I have successfully reclassified DreamGrafix, DuelTris,
Xenocide and helped in part with Diversi-Tune (and at
the moment I have another few titles I'm working on) but 
in ALL these cases it was dealing with _authors_ who held 
control over the copyrights, not a large corporation. And
often the original companies have gone bankrupt or been
bought up several times making things even more difficult.

Mitchell Spector
a_specto@alcor.concordia.ca