----- Original Message ----- From: "Darren Branagh"
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 3:43 PM
Subject: RE: RE: [ql-users] Digital Precision Software
This is one of the many things that bugs the hell out of me.
I wish there was a "statute of limitations" or similar on software, whereby
after x years the stuff became free. I'm sure freddy would agree to
releasing it as freeware, or certainly for a giveaway price. I mean, what
real use is a piece of 10 year old QL Software other than retro/curiosity
value? You're hardly gonna run the world with it...
There is so much good usable software out there and nobody knows its user status - is it freeware, charityware, commercial, or what? And if we had some certainty on a lot of this, a lot of users may be attracted back or stay with the QL to use them, purely as tinkerers.
I can pick up a copy of PC World, Computer Shopper, PC Pro or any other PC
Magazine and find a pile of software (often once costing hundreds of pounds)
stuck to the front cover for the 4.99 cover price, and much of this is less
than 2-3 years of age. You usually find v.3 or whatever on the cover disc
with an offer to get the new v.4 inside at a reduced cost - yet here we are
debating the status of software that hasn't been sold at all, never mind
updated, for over a decade.
Why are people so reluctant to give this stuff away? There is no money in it
anymore. Just ask any trader :-)
<END RANT>/
Don't forget Freddy V. may have sold the software, but that does not mean he is the copyright holder. I have said this many times before on this list. There are doubts about the copyright position of several of the ancilliary programs that formed part of the total Perfection package. When I enquired many years ago, no one was sure of the exact copyright status of Spellchecker, for example. If my memory serves me correctly when Turbo became PD permission had to be sought not just from Freddy V., but also the various authors,
Best Wishes,
Geoff
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