Re: Asimov Uploads..

[Dick Sisco <dsisco@mchsi.com>]

On Sat, 10 Apr 2004 12:54:45 -0400, Jeff Blakeney
<CUTjblakeney@sympatico.ca> wrote:

>On Fri, 09 Apr 2004 23:33:55 GMT, "Steve \"Usotsuki\" Nickolas"
><usotsuki@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>Now all I have to do is wait for them to enter the main archive.
>
>And possibly wait for MECC to come along and ask for them to be
>removed which they have done in the past.

I would be very surprised if MECC objected as the company no longer
exists.  They were swallowed up by Softkey International in 1995 and
the company name "MECC" was discontinued the next year,  In 1999 the
Minneapolis offices of what had been MECC closed.  The last I heard,
Mattel had purchased Softkey International (by then renamed The
Learning Company), but as far as I know, they are not actively in the
software business.

At least one of the motivations for objecting to including MECC Apple
II software on archive sites was the fact that "Oregon Trail"  was one
of those titles.  MECC was very protective of the title (they were
still producing Mac and Windows versions).  They were also still
producing Apple II software until at least 1995 (although there might
have been a small release in 1996, but that would have been just
repackaged National Geographic titles).

I can't promise you that Mattel (or whoever owns the titles now won't
object), but the last employee with an Apple II in his cube and the
only one still paying any attention to the Apple II newsgroups and
archives,  left the company in 1997.

--Dick Sisco
(former MECC Programmer)