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Rich Mellor wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:03:19 -0000, Jan Palenicek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>>> I know I keep harping on about it but take another look at the
>>>> spectrum,
>>>> the best emulators for that Fuse (for linux) and Spin (for windows) are
>>>> both free. Someone can download one of those, then go to the world of
>>>> spectrum website and download all the applications they need to start
>>>> developing for it. The same can't be said for the QL. I suspect that's
>>>> one of the reasons why there are so few people developing software for
>>>> the QL.
>>> Yes but then you have to look closely at World of Spectrum. It is in
>>> effect a software archive - many of the programs have never been made
>>> public domain, but the people running the website are willing to take
>>> the
>>> risk that they will not sued. There are also a lot of the Spectrum
>>> software authors who are around and have given their permission.
>> Amiga, Atari, CPC, XE, XL, MSX (hope you know what the letters mean) -
>> people decided to put such old software and games on the web and make it
>> available for free. Such software is called "abandonware", see wikipedia
>> term:
>>
>> Abandonware is computer software which is no longer being sold or
>> supported by its copyright holder. Alternativeely, the term is also used
>> for software which is still available, but on which further support and
>> development has been deliberately discontinued. Sometimes, it is used as
>> a blanket category for any software over a certain age, usually five
>> years.
>>
>> This has happened also for PSION PDAs, where Psion officially stopped
>> support (in ~2004) and some SW companies agreed to put their products
>> without support on the web for free.
>
> No this is two different arguments. Most of the QL software was written
> in the UK and the UK copyright laws do not recognise any such term as
> abandonware. I for one am unwilling to host downloads on my website which
> may leave me open to legal suits from the original author for infringement
> of their copyright. Under UK law, copyright lasts life + 50 years, so we
> have a long way to go.
+ 70 years
http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/uk_law_summary
Mind you if the author cannot be found, how do we know when he dies?
<snip>
Tony
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