Re: trading policy for IIe

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

Uh . . . the very definition of public domain is that it is free for anyone
to do anything with it they darned well please. They don't need anyone's
permission. I explicitly put every stitch of Eamon stuff I ever wrote into
the public domain, it says so right in the docs. If someone wants to erase
my name and take credit for my stuff, he has that right, though I might take
it upon myself to proclaim his low morals to others.

Authors need to consider the possibility that they might "change their mind"
before they release anything freely.

As for "freeware," it is a nice ethical concept but I'd wager big bucks that
any court in the land would look upon it as no different than public domain,
particularly if the author tried to pull it back into a controlled
environment. Having said that, you are 100% right that we should honor
freeware restrictions.

You didn't mention your views on abandoned software. Abandoned or not, it is
still "someone else's software." How do you feel about trading stuff like,
for example, Robot War, which "belongs" to a company long out of business
and who had even lost the capability to manufacture because they sent the
hard drive to a landfill back in the '80's. I remember another example
(forget the title) in which inquiry resulted in a company rep denying that
they had EVER sold software for the Apple II, even though it was founded on
that platform in the '70's. What should we do then?

Tom Zuchowski

"Simon Williams" <ludditetech@mac.com> wrote in message
9f61cf69.0206072030.4cee0f7a@posting.google.com">news:9f61cf69.0206072030.4cee0f7a@posting.google.com...
> Anyhoo, I think the basic rules of thumb should be:
>
> *If a piece of software is still in commercial production, do not
> copy/trade it.
> *Don't duplicate and sell someone else's software at a profit (even if
> it's freeware/public domain), unless you have the author's consent.
> *Be sensible / be nice / smile lots.
>
> Blah-blah-blah...enough out of me. What do the rest of you think?
>
> I'll post my trade list in the next few days.