Re: Copyright request?!?

[sheercon@earthlink.net]

Penman wrote:

> You've accused me of not being civil, well here goes:
>
> Rubywand, your arguement about waiting for the copyright holder to
> "request" that their software be removed simply points out the piracy
> mentality.  You should do the opposite - withhold placing software,
> regardless of how much YOU want it there, until you DO get permission.
> Yes, I know, some people may not be found, but this (and this has been
> pointed out to you and the others ad nauseum for years) posting and
> waiting is copyright infringement, theft, stealing, whatever you want to
> call it.  The onus is on YOU as the poster to get the info, not on the
> copyright holder to protest.  I find it interesting that the Lost Classics
> folk over at Genie/Delphi (oh right--you don't like them for some reason
> that's never made sense to me) and Willie Yeo's site have been able to get
> a LOT of copyright permissions, just this past year.  All of the Qlabs
> titles, the Office Productivity Software titles, and these have shown up
> on the ftp sites, along with a lot of other software, that HAVE had
> permission obtained. Amazing how many ftp sites there are stuffed to the
> gills with legitimate software releases.  Amazing that cabi.net and Asimov
> and to a certain extent Ground has software-by-rationalization posted.
>
> But it's easier, isn't it, to just post and wait for someone to object,
> and when they do, reading this newsgroup, the software's still not always
> removed, is it?  "Abandonedware" isn't a software catagory.  It's a
> rationalization for theft.

Software piracy with contemporary software is obviously a "bad thing".
Software that is obsolete, not commercially available with no chance of
becoming so - it seems a bit extreme accusing someone of *theft* for having
such software.

It is of course copyright "infringement", but who is going to enforce
copyrights on obsolete software? People will have to hire lawyers and lawyers
cost money. And since noone is /losing/ money by this obsolete software being
offered; nobody has any financial motivation to prevent it. If the authors
don't care, why should you?

Your motives are honorable but there are a lot of legitimate causes for your
concern - like all of the current PC, Nintendo and playstation piracy which is
going on.

Thanks,
Brian