Re: Re: Old DOS BBS Programs
By: Grimpen to Xerxes on Thu Jun 16 2022 10:21 am
Xe>> I don't know - but it reminds me of the guy who ran Commodore USA a
Xe>> few years ago (he passed away a couple of years ago).
Xe>> He couldn't figure out who owned the IP/Copyrights to Commodore, so
Xe>> he just started selling Commodore branded stuff until somebody sued
Xe>> him (and they did).
Gr> ...
Xe>> So yea, appearantly you can just claim to own something until
Xe>> someone sues you, lol.
Gr> I liked the old copyright requirement where you had to re-register your
Gr> copyright every 20 years or so. If a property wasn't valuable to the
Gr> original author, it reverted to the public domain. Neatly solves the
Gr> problem of Abandonware.
I agree with this. Intellectual property is tricky stuff, I seem to recall that
a large driver around those changes in the 90s was for Disney for Mikey Mouse.
There has to be a way to protect IP long term but also let things go if the aut
hor/owner isn't interested. That's what our whole copyright/patent/trademark sy
stem was orginally designed for - to have stuff go into the public domain partic
ularly if they were not being used.
There is the case of LORD as well. Seth Robinson said in an interview he wants
to buy back the rights to LORD for the same amount that he was paid for it so he
can open source it and release a key-gen for 4.07+ (and also so he can do other
stuff with LORD, but not a new BBS game). He can't get a hold of anyone at Met
ropolis Gameport to have that conversation, just like most of the people who try
to register it.
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