Travis Siegel schrieb: > I agree that abandon programs such as win 3.x and msdos should be > opensourced, but I'd settle for uninforcable copyrights. I'm > personally of the opinion that if the company no longer sells, > supports, or in the case of most companies, actively discourages the > use of said program, then that program should fall into public domain, > and no longer be liable for copyright infringement. Thus, all those > commercial dos games such as the kings quest, colonel's bequest, > civilization, and so on should have no penalty whatsoever for copying > them. > I realize most older dos software is available somewhere online if you > search hard enough, but it shouldn't be necessary to hide such > things. The companies (in some cases are just plain gone) the > software is no longer sold, it certainly isn't supported, and even if > you wanted to buy a copy of said program, it's just plain not > possible, because the companies no longer have copies to sell, even if > you could reach someone who was willing to sell a copy. > So, why should we have to fear law suits when there's clearly no > financial loss to the companies in question. > Last time the copyright laws came up for discussion, some folks tried > to get an excemption for older software, but the copyright office > turned down the amendment. It's up for renewal this year (or next, > not sure which) perhaps we should try again. Then we'd have all kinds > of software for freedos. > But regardless, open sourcing some of the old dos programs would be an > excellent idea, and provide loads of educational and historical > importants knowledge to new computer users, or those just trying to > get into computer programming, it could act as a roadmap so to speak > of what the computer industry has gone through in it's various > incarnations as relates to mainstream software. > Just my thoughts, use them as you like (or disregard them entirely, > that's ok too)
I agree in most points. On my harddisk I started to prepare something like a petition to push forward in the complex of themes "legalize abandonware, backuup your source code and release it"... If you are seriously interested in contributing you may contact me. -mr ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
