[Coco] Copyright???

[Dennis Bathory-Kitsz]

At 05:40 PM 1/22/04 -0800, clifford redding wrote:
>I'll go out on a limb here and play the devils advocate. The CoCo is no
>longer commercially available. The software, magazine articles, etc. are no
>longer for a viable machine. So would it be such a strech to say that the
>software, mag articles, etc. no longer fall under the copyright act based 
>on the fact the machine is no longer available?

It would be not only a stretch, it would be wrong. Not only is this
material protected for the next half-century or longer under the Sonny Bono
Act, it would still be protected under the *old* act, which specified 28
years plus renewal. No CoCo software would have expired until 2008, and
under the new act, it's 70 years after the death of the author or 90 years
for corporations. My own software, despite the fact that I announced that
it was being provided to the public domain, would still be protected until
2074 if I was run over by a bus tomorrow.

As I said and Kenneth Schunk expanded in fine detail, the absence of the
hardware has no effect on the copyright itself, only the circumvention
provisions.

I'm happy to have you lobby for the repeal of the Sonny Bono Act. It's
pretty despicable. But even repealed, copyright is still in effect for
every piece of CoCo software.

Check the Cornell copyright website. They have not only the law, but
excellent explanations of it.

Dennis