"Eric L. Strobel" <fyzycyst_at_home.com> wrote
-- Again, your statement only holds IF the copyright holder chooses to protect the copyright. If a copyright is held by anyone and they fail to defend that copyright, then the copyright vanishes, it's as simple as that. And, at that point, any talk of infringement becomes moot. At least, that's always been *my* understanding of copyright --I'm not sure I agree with that statement. If this were true then no copyrights would effective until the court system was clogged up with cases defending copyrights.
I was reading the United States copyright act (http://www.loc.gov/copyright/title17/circ92.html) and maybe we can make some interesting arguments (i'm not a copyright lawyer or even a bright legal mind but I though arguing the law would add to an already spirited discussion)
* If a company that published a software title goes out of business, can that be argued as the equivalent of an author dying? If so then the copyright exists for 70 years after the company goes out of business (Title 17 cicular 92 Section 302 A)
* Section 501 says that if you violate the rights of the copyright owner as specified in Sections 106 thru 121 then you are an infringer.
* Section 411 says that you cannot pursue a claim of infringement unless you have submitted a registration with the US copyright office. But if you submit the registration and are refused you can still maintain your infrigement claim if you file a copy of the claim with the copyright office.
* If the copyright owner chooses to defend their copyright you may be subject to a fine of no less than $750 and no more than $30,000, unless it is shown that you willfully violated copyright in which case the statutory damage is $150,000.
* But Section 412 says that you cannot be held liable for damages if the infringement occured prior to registration for an unplublished work or if the infringement occurred after publication but before registration, unless the registration was performed within 3 months of the first publishing.
So if you are going to use abandonware then you should contact the copyright office to see if it was ever registered. If not and it's been more than 3 months since the work was published, then you are violating copyright but cannot be held for damages. Or, get a letter (notarized, preferably) indicating transfer of copyright into public domain, or to you and register the copyright under your ownership.
That's enough from me. Discuss ;-)
-- Michael Guzzo http://home.att.net/~michael.guzzo/newton/newton.html
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