Question of copyright

Thanks, everyone for the advice...

I knew I'd get a more tempered view from a community that wasn't
specifically interested in the compiler.

It is a Basic compiler for the TI-99/4A, only one that can compile without
rewriting the program, and apparently I'm the only one holding a remaining
copy.

I don't really use it anymore, so I will let the high bidder on ebay choose
whether they want to release it. If they are so concerned with releasing it
to the public, THEY can do it...

Leave me out of it...

Again, thanks for the advice. That is what my head told me (my heart wanted
to release it, but I know better). Now it is out of my hands...

Unless no one buys it, in which case I guess it wasn't important enough to
them in the end!

-> If you had a BASIC compiler for a long-dead computer, that you bought 20
-> years ago, and have no way of reaching the author or company (I have tried
-> for about the last 10 years)...

-> This is a company on U.S. Soil - would you release the software to your
-> fellow community?

-> It is the ONLY full compiler for BASIC on the target machine.

-> I know what the community thinks now - or at least the half that doesn't
-> care about copyrights... I've actually been accused of doing the community a
-> "disservice" by not releasing the software much earlier... Gee, I paid for
-> it - they didn't...

-> I also know there has been a push to release such "dead" software from
-> copyright, but the progress has been slow and apparently, from what I've
-> heard, has been weakened and may not even cover such gems...

Discuss it with a lawyer. There are aspects to copyright law that may
work in your favour. For example, it has to be actively enforced. If
someone owns the copyright to a work, and someone else copies it
without permission, the copyright owner *must* take steps to end the
infringement. If he doesn't, then after a while the copyright may be
deemed to have lapsed, and after that anyone can copy the work without
permission.

There are plenty of "Philadelphia lawyers" here who will give you
advice. But only a real lawyer puts his reputation on the line when he
advises you. Talk to a real lawyer.

dow

On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:51:58 -0600, david.williams@bayman.org (David Williams)
wrote:


>Discuss it with a lawyer. There are aspects to copyright law that may
>work in your favour. For example, it has to be actively enforced. If
>someone owns the copyright to a work, and someone else copies it
>without permission, the copyright owner *must* take steps to end the
>infringement. If he doesn't, then after a while the copyright may be
>deemed to have lapsed, and after that anyone can copy the work without
>permission.

If that were truly the case, then Microsoft would have lost the rights to
virtually all their operating systems.

I suspect that when you said

>"someone else copies it
>without permission, the copyright owner *must* take steps to end the
>infringement."

the active enforcement would really require the odd pursuit rather than the
implied "each and every" that I for one read into your statement.