From: Victor Rehorst (victor_at_newtontalk.net)
Date: Fri Jun 15 2001 - 06:35:32 PDT
On Fri, 15 Jun 2001, John M. Powell wrote:
> 1) I've been trying to track down Harry Kardash of HexDump software -
> they seem to have dropped off the planet. I found a lead, which had a
> contact, which made emails.... nuthin more. They made HexPaint (good
> prog, although I haven't used much) and Bricks2, definately one of the
> best games on the Newton period - some incredible animation and the
> gameplay is pretty good too. In THIS case, their software does not
> require reg codes. And I DO OWN both of them. So it'd be no problem to
> 'make it available' to the community, but that's not MY call to make -
> obviously, I didn't write the software. But in cases like that, where
> the company simply does not exist anymore... what do we do? Legally,
> at what point do we say, "I've tried as hard as I can to contact the
> crreators, I've passed some statute of limitations, we're free to make
> it available to the community". Or can we EVER reach that point
> legally?
What has come out of the (many) discussions of this before is that:
Most (ie. US-style, remember that there are quite a few Newton developers
outside N.America) copyright law states that the onice is on the copyright
holder to enforce their copyright. So if the copyright holder simply
doesn't care anymore, then there is nothing to stop you from distributing
copyrighted materials. (Note that it is still against the law, but only
the copyright holder can bring a suit against you, AFAIK. IANAL.)
cf. All of the Apple development tools that were under NDA but are now
being distributed everywhere.
> 2) Software that required reg codes. What do we do here with software
> that isn't supported anymore but requires codes? There are cases where
> again, the company does not exist anymore, and codes were required...
> do we just yawn and say that's just the way it is, or try and figure
> it out? In my particular case, I had spent money with Tactile on a
Sometimes, things have been figured out; I believe this is the story of
Silicon Casino. It required a code, and after poking Casady & Greene (the
original distributor) a bit, they found contact info for the original
programmer (who held the rights), and he decided that he didn't care
anymore and gave up a universal reg code. (If you're looking for this, I
know it's up on This Ol' Newt somewhere)
> work. And I've tried now for about 2 months getting in touch with them
> to no avail, using his email address and Kim's.... nothing.
> WorldConquest and Solito were two of my favs. What do I do now if I
> can't reach them?
In the immortal words of Bender, everyone's favourite sarcastic robot from
Futurama:
"You're boned."
There's really nothing you can do about it.
> follow. As a 'community', what do we or can we do to help keep this
> great stuff alive?
When you find it, submit it to UNNA :) I'll take most stuff as long as
you can show that the copyright holders want nothing to do with it
anymore.
-- Victor Rehorst - victor_at_newtontalk.net - chuma_at_chuma.org NewtonTalk list administrator - http://www.newtontalk.net Will help you with your list problems - as long as you're nice. -- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe: newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net with 'unsubscribe' in the BODY. Unsubscribe messages sent to the list will be filtered.
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