Re: CD of all Files on Asimov

["Kevin" <kkralian@aros.net>]

> >take rescue raiders.  I 
> >seriously doubt that the rights to RR will be exercised by the copyright

> >holder and if they tried to now, their right to it would have been 
> >extinguished.
> 
> Do not doubt for a minute, that if the author of Rescue Raiders that it
> would be cost effetive (ie, gain more than it cost him) he would come
> after you. I know him, and he would. Also, since he is still alive his
> rights are far from extinguished. These rights only expire years (25?
50?)
> after his death.

Yeah- the author would do something if there was any money involved. But
there isn't. He isn't losing anything, and there is nothing to be gained.
And I'm sure at this point he doesn't mind (like most other software
authors) that his ancient software still has value to some people. It's the
ultimate ego-booster for a programmer to see there game is still "out
there". I write games for a living- after a few years, if my old games are
floating around in the pirate world (after their economic lifetime is
over), GREAT! I'm glad I made a game that stands the test of time, and I
already got my rewards for it years ago. Why not let the public enjoy it?

And if the author of Rescue Raiders so wanted, he could have his title
taken off Asimov. It wouldn't cost him a penny. He won't need lawyers. He
simply has to show his standing with the product and ask Asimov, and I'm
sure it will be done. The bottom line is he hasn't even asked. And probably
never will.

> In truth, I expect that most of the copyright holders know about Asimov,
> but leave it alone because they either don't care, or can not justify
> spending thousands of dollars to protect the copyright of a program they
> will never make any more money on.

Nobody has to spend thousands of dollars. It's probably more like they
don't care. 


> That does not make the distribution of Copyrighted software any more
> legal, everyone's personal opinions on the moral issue aside. A bit of
> effort can track down most of the copyright holders in order to obtain
> permission.

Legally, yeah, there isn't any question. Thats the problem- Copyright law
doesn't take this type of situation into account. And trying to track down
the copyright holders isn't going to work (this has been tried before by
the apple community). The main problems with this is, The original authors
usually don't own the copyright- the publishers do. Most the publishers
aren't around anymore, and who owns what is now a nightmare. But the bigger
problem is the "copyright" is an all-encompassing protection on the game-
It's title, the game, the music, the sounds, the art, etc. And most of
those things are worth keeping. 

Most companies would not want to give up their copyright (and they
shouldn't). If they did, what would be to stop me from writing and
publishing "Resue Raiders II" ? And stealing the artwork? Or taking rescue
raiders and selling it as part of my "Apple II Emulation Pack" ?  

We are talking about being able to copy copyrighted software- not trying to
have the copyright removed. (Like shareware, freeware, etc). But the
software companies are not going to spend 5 minutes or $5 looking at how to
do this, and as far as they are concerned, if they move in that direction
they might inadvertently open themselves up to the things I described in
the last paragraph. So, instead they choose to be "unresponsive", never
giving permission or relinquishing any of their rights, but not taking any
action to stop this either.

> good. While I find merits in this discussion, I can't help but find the
> actual discussion juvenile for the most part.

well thanks for your contributions.

-kevin