Re: [Trisquel-users] ¿How to obtain source code from closed company’s privative programs?

[jason]

Indeed. If a company went bankrupt there may have been a bankruptcy auction  
in which someone else acquired some or all of the assets. If it's a public  
company (i.e., with stock) the shareholders might own it. If it's not the  
Board of Directors may have transferred the assets to someone else's name  
before shutting down (this may only be documented in the company's internal  
records.) Getting a lawyer involved to work on cases like this this is  
probably best.

I've recently learned that a company's assets in the U.K. can pass to the  
ownership of the Crown if they're not dealt with before the company shuts  
down. So the fate of the copyright very much depends on what happened to the  
company, where they were located at, and other factors. But regardless the  
copyright doesn't just disappear as you say - It needs research to find what  
happened & where the copyright went to. This can be very difficult to  
accomplish. This is one of the ways that orphan works are created:  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_works