[Coco] [Color Computer] Hot Coco Post Partum

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 01 August 2005 17:04, John R. Hogerhuis wrote:
>On Mon, 2005-08-01 at 14:37 -0600, Michael Wayne Harwood wrote:
>> IDG may not be able to prove that they own the copyright to Hot
>> Coco material, but I suspect that if they desired to they would be
>> able to provide a preponderance of evidence that many (if not all)
>> of the authors of similar articles signed a similar agreement. 
>> This could build a case that would have a good chance of winning
>> in court in anyone contested their ownership of copyright.
>
>Yeah, we're mostly in agreement (and I think that's about what I
> said). I am not really arguing that, and I'm not suggesting that
> it's wise to get into a legal fight with them.
>
>> If I read you right in regards to "orphan works" and "abandonware"
>> you consider Hot Coco to fall into this category.  If so I
>> respectfully disagree.  An "orphaned work" is considered such if
>> you cannot contact the copyright holder to request permission.  In
>> this case the copyright owner seems to be fairly clear, and though
>> they are being selfish in how they are handling this they are
>> fully within their rights.
>
>A distinction without a difference... there is no bulletproof clear
>copyright holder for the original articles, so they cannot safely
> give permission, and making it bulletproof would be a considerable
> expense. So if not exactly the same thing, it's just like not being
> able to find the copyright holder at all. They are likely the
> copyright holder for all articles (by assignment) but as you said,
> it's only a supposition. IDG claims that they don't have the
> original agreements. If they did have them, it is possible that
> they could or would give permission or sell licenses.
>
>It's possible that they didn't require assignment for all articles,
> but took it on a case-by-case basis. It's possible that they didn't
> require assignment at some point, and they did afterward, etc.  We
> can't really know what IDG would do if they were certain about all
> the copyrights.
>
>Orphan works are not just an issue of location and contact with the
>copyright holder. It's also what happens when "who owns the rights"
> is too murky for legal purposes as in this case. A good solution to
> the orphan works issue would solve this problem.
>
>-- John.

FWIW John, I think orphaned is the wrong word to describe the IDG 
stuff like Hot Coco.  In this case IDG has retained the copyrights, 
but has no interest in further marketing what to them is 20 year old, 
outdated material.  Therefore to me the correct term would be 
abandonware.  And I agree, its a crying shame, and my 
congress-critters will be advised that its time they gave copyright a 
loophole that opens when the holder is no longer interested in 
publishing it for any interested buyers.  The fact that they aren't 
willing to produce the agreements, and in fact have probably long 
since disposed of them (along with the offset plates that printed 
them in the first place, they recycle at the alu recyclers quite 
nicely), should be grounds for an instant abandonware declaration.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
99.35% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
<font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12hvqa785/M=362131.6882499.7825260.1510227/D=groups/S=1705005378:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1122951847/A=2889191/R=0/SIG=10r90krvo/*http://www.thebeehive.org
">Get Bzzzy! (real tools to help you find a job) Welcome to the Sweet Life - brought to you by One Economy</a>.</font>
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

Brought to you by the 6809, the 6803 and their cousins! 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ColorComputer/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    ColorComputer-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/