Who Owns Source Code When a Company Folds?

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

Interesting discussion on Slashdot:

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/05/1920207

Who Owns Source Code When a Company Folds?

 Posted by Cliff on Tuesday August 05, @04:58PM

from the tough-questions-with-little-in-the-way-of-answers dept.

pipeb0mb asks: "A few years ago, I worked for Chilliware, Inc. as the
'Technical Development Manager'. Some of you may remember us for the
software iceSculptor, Mohawk and Mentor. Chilliware folded rather quickly
and harshly back in May of 2001 due to money issues. Within days of the
first layoff, everyone was gone, from the CEO and VP's to the receptionist.
Now, years later, I've been digging through some old CDs, and am reminded
that I still have the final production source code for the products we
released in the retail channel. I've attempted to contact several folks
over the past couple of years to gather information about the software and
who owns it now. To no avail though. Either I get an 'I don't know' or 'No
one' from the dis-interested parties. I feel like these programs are my
children that never got a fair shot. I hate to see so much work wasted and
lost to the ages. So, Slashdot: What do I do with this source code? It's a
great deal of well commented and well written code, performed by over 100
developers in a former Soviet Republic (who formerly worked with Boomerang
Software). Where do my binary children go now?" As things are now, if a
company folds, the code is buried and forgotten unless someone buys the
rights to it, before the source code is lost. This issue was discussed a
long time ago and there didn't seem to be much in the way of answers. Have
3 years made any difference?



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Norman Bauman
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