In view of the highly negative (and offensive) comments which I have
received on various forums about my approach to the preservation of QL
software, I have now taken the decision to formally close my project.
It is interesting to read that World of Spectrum is also going through
similar problems due to people becoming abusive to the people who invest
time and money in the site.
Thankfully ql-users has remained immune, but since all of this is having
a negative impact on my health, and taking me away from the small amount
of time I am well enough to work each day, it is with regret that after
9 years, my own project has now come to an end.
It is a shame as over 120 titles have been released as freeware in the
past 2 years mainly due to my efforts in tracking down and contacting
the copyright holders to ask them what they wanted done with their
software. A further 29 titles have also been re-released commercially
as a result.
The majority of feedback seems to be that my commercial interests are
ruining the software preservation and that a project where software is
preserved and simply made free to download by all is what is required
(without any willing hands to do the work).
I shall therefore no longer be updating the QL WIki and if there is not
enough interest to keep this going (and updates by others), then perhaps
I should remove its hosting as it is obviously of no value. Similar
comments apply to the SBASIC/SuperBASIC Reference Manual Online.
The QL community will now need to find others to take software
preservation and the QL Wiki forward - there is a spreadsheet available
for reference which shows the current list of known programs and status
of preservation:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/84m3eizdplf9fv3/%21%21%20Full%20QL%20Software%20List%20-%20Preserved.xlsx?dl=0
There is also the Italian software preservation project - which has been
running alongside my own personal project and concentrates on preserving
img dumps of microdrive cartridges and disks (complete with copy
protection etc) - although again, Simone (Outsoft) has been criticised
for not making what he has preserved to date freely available for
download, in breach of copyright.
So - where does it go from here?
That is up to the community to decide.
There is now a huge opportunity for the community to decide exactly what
QL preservation should look like, how it should be funded and who should
be responsible for preserving the software and maintaining any
repository, dealing with copyright holders and hosting the websites / QL
Wiki etc
If anyone can provide evidence that permission has been obtained for
even more software to be released as freeware, then I can of course
release it from my stored backups - although you may still need to
remove copy protection, find additional copies to merge together into
one fully working copy, or alter the software to get it working on
modern systems and emulators. I shall however, not get involved in
software piracy.
--
Rich Mellor
RWAP Services
Specialist Enuuk Auction Programming Services
www.rwapservices.co.uk
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