https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_work
I would like IBM to allow Hobbyist use of Cobol85 via the Hercules group. On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 11:05 AM Phil Smith III <[email protected]> wrote: > > Wow, those names are blasts from the past! They raise some interesting > questions: > > 1. If you could find a tape (and read it), would they still run? > 2. If they did run, would you be legal using them without paying for > them? > 3. If not, would it matter? I.e., since the companies are gone, would > anyone care? I guess the worry would be that some patent troll bought the IP > and would come after you, though how they'd find you is a bit of a mystery > too. It's not like stuff that old is sending out license requests on the > Internet! > > > > ObAnecdote: In 1994 or so, VM Systems Group bought Microcom, the company that > made the Relay/Gold terminal emulator. This was VMSG's first step in evolving > from a mainframe software company to a dead^wPC software company (they sold > out to NetDamage for pennies about five years later). > > Relay/Gold was written in a variant of x86 assembler from a long-dead > company. The language itself was not compatible with other assemblers. I > never worked on it, so I don't know what this means-does this suggest that, > if this had been a z/Architecture assembler, the LR instruction might have > been RL or something?!? Even that would lend itself to translation via an > editor macro, you'd think. Anyway, it apparently wasn't convertible, so for > the rest of its life (and prior to the acquisition, even), developers used > bootleg copies of that assembler. Nobody was happy about it*, but we couldn't > find anyone to pay! > > *Well, maybe our finance people. > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN -- Mike A Schwab, Springfield IL USA Where do Forest Rangers go to get away from it all? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
