Re: Is Xy 4 now freeware?/my advice abandonware

[J R FOX]

My recall is not always the greatest, but the name that springs to mind re
TTG is Ken Frank. And wasn't he an attorney himself, anyway? If that's
correct, he certainly could have kept the copyright alive, had he
so wished. And I also recall there having been some strenuous efforts
to contact him about this, back in the day.

While I have not had time to review the links Kari just posted, I believe the
status of "Abandonware" has been pretty well established in the law by now.
Also, keep in mind that NB (nee' Dragonfly) has licensed the core Xy "engine" --
one would assume for a very lengthy duration, if not in perpetuity.

I don't know exactly how this shakes out legally, but it could make
them an interested party. Xywrite / Signature was a separate and distinct
product however . . . .


 Jordan
 


 From: Myron Gochnauer 
 To: "xywrite@freelists.org" 
 Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2015 11:56 AM
 Subject: Re: Is Xy 4 now freeware?/my advice abandonware
 
Now, now. Let's not slam lawyers for offering a means of protecting
intellectual property! :-)

Although I purchased every version of XyWrite (including Signature) from II+
onward, my thought on similarly abandoned programs is this:

As long as I do not commercialize the program, *and* I would be willing to
pay some reasonable market price for it if the copyright holder were interested
and available, I can use it without legal or moral concern. Perhaps one
other restriction should be added: . . .and I do nothing to obscure
the origin, authorship or ownership of the program.

From a legal point of view, if you have made reasonable efforts to locate the
copyright holder, and do not commercialize the program or code, what damages
would you owe were you successfully sued??? The normal measure of
damages is an amount that would put the wronged person back in the position
s/he would have been in had there been no wrong. . . .

I seem to recall that a few years ago some members of our group went to
considerable lengths to locate the Technology Group owner (whose name I cannot
recall at the moment). All efforts were unsuccessful.  Right?
Did any of you ever obtain a copy of the TG's long-anticipated new version?

Myron