[Coco] Peeks, Pokes, Execs on-line

[Arthur Flexser]

I believe that it was a product of Microcom Software, a couple of Indian (Asian,
not native American) fellows (father/son??) located (had a store, I think) in
upstate New York, the same company that sold Word Power 3 and other software.  
Nice folks.  (I know, three parenthetical phrases in the same sentence is a bit
much.)

Art

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Neil Morrison wrote:

> 
> If you can find the copyright owner, do so and ask permission. If you can't, 
> which is worse, to publish it on the web or to lose it forever? Much has 
> already been lost, never to be seen again. We should have started a grand 
> collection years ago, but it's only now that we all realise what we are 
> losing. Even Bill Gates, the most notorious copyright defender, offered to 
> publish his original 8-bit Basic source code in some form. He then found out 
> he had lost it and no longer had a copy!
> 
> I know people who sell $1 million software - who no longer have a complete 
> set of sources!
> 
> Neil
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <farna at att.net>
> 
> 
> > Morally it's wrong. Someone owns a copyright to it. Legally it's wrong for 
> > the same reason, but someone has to file a complaint. Since the amount of 
> > damages is so miniscule, the only thing they are likely to do is issue a 
> > "cease and desist" order, that's if they actually do consult a lawyer. 
> > Since there is no money in it for him, that's what most lawyers recommend. 
> > Only if you continue after that is there much value in suing, and then 
> > it's a fine imposed by the court and usually the defending lawyers fees, 
> > sometimes out of the fine, sometimes in addition. But they DO have to show 
> > that you were contacted and/or they attempted to rectify the situation out 
> > of court. Very few people are willing to put up $5K or so in lawyer fees 
> > on principle.
> >
> > Practically, no one really cares about it any more, and there is really no 
> > profit to be made. Even if it were available through legal channels it 
> > would likely be to expensive to buy because there are so few potential 
> > buyers. Definitely wouldn't be worth while. That's why I gave all rights 
> > to everything I had to the people who would see it distributed -- Glenside 
> > CoCo Club. I also put it all in PD after they okayed it. THAT is what 
> > should be done to "orphanware" after a 5-10 year period. Retaining rights 
> > on software after 10 years is really stupid, as most outlives it's 
> > usefulness in 2-3 years. Now if a company is still publishing a version of 
> > it, especially with some small amount of code left from the original, 
> > that's a lot different.
> 
> 
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