Note to QC & PG

["Arkain" <rwking@no.usa.spam.net>]

You know, I just wanted to know what the terms meant. You've just proven
that some things must be seen first hand to be fully understood. Now I think
I do.

Vogon                Turlette
----------------     -------------
Quantum_Cat          Paul Grammens

...or at least that's the way it seemed in this argument.... That's right,
ARGUMENT. What happened to the normalized discussions that lead to some sort
of reasonable solution??? You to are bantering over the legalities of some
thing who's legal status is clearly known. Much of the software that's out
there for A2 machines is owned by companies that are still in business. So
why don't the two sides stop their idiotic ramblings for a minute and put
some effort into solving that problem...

Here's my definition of abandonware:

abandonware - software that is no longer in development, support, or
circulation from the current copyright holder.

IANAL. Repeat: INIAL.

The way I see it, assuming that I understand the laws correctly, since some
of the A2 abandonware is copyrighted by companies that no longer exist, that
software has no legal copyright attached to it. Since a copyright requires a
copyright holder, and the copyight holder no longer exists, then the
copyright in question is legally null & void.

All of the other software that is owned by a currently viable company or by
a corproation that bought out the previous copyright owner is still under
copyright and can lead to the same type of headaches that pirating current
shelfware(currently supported commercial programs) will.


IMNSHO, if the softawre has really been abandoned, then use it *AT YOUR OWN
RISK* and remove it if the copyright owner requests. We really need to just
get together and petition these companies to release their non-viable A2
software to public domain so as to avoid all such inane issues.

Arkain