Re: XYWRITE DOS screen freeze; intellectual property

["Patricia M. Godfrey" pmgodfrey@xxxxxxxx]

Is this in a DOS window in 32-bit Windows? or in a true DOS boot
situation? Because back when I was using XyDOS (4) on a DOS 486, I kept
having crashes and screen problems. I was using Novell DOS (that's the
old DR DOS, bought out, spruced up and given protected mode capabilities,
and then dropped like a hot potato by Novell), which I happen to know all
the techs at TTG also used. I finally got a new PCI VGA card to replace
my old ISA one, and the problems stopped immediately. I think XyW DOS has
some DOS extender code that sneaks up and uses some of the memory above
640 K that DOS left unused, but that some VGA cards also tried to use.
Hence the conflicts.
Intellectual Property: As I was one of those who started this thread,
perhaps I can clarify things a bit, since we seem to be arguing at cross
purposes. No one, that I have seen, is denying what the law currently
says. I and some others are questioning whether the existing law either
is just or serves the purposes that copyright law was intended to serve.
All such arguments, of course, assume that there are standards of right
and wrong, of justice and injustice, before, outside, and sometimes in
opposition to human positive law. That conviction has been widely held
throughout human history, but some people do not accept it; they hold
that "right" is what the law says it is, and to ask if the law itself is
just is meaningless. _That_ difference is one of the unprovable and
inarguable first principles; people who differ about such things live in
different universes and cannot profitably argue at all.
	But if we grant that laws can be unjust, the following questions arise
in this case: 1) Is copyright itself justifiable? 2) If it is, ought the
same copyright provisions apply to both works of literature (in the
widest sense) and software code? Or does software differ from literature,
either by so great a degree or in kind, that applying the same rules is
unfair? 3) Even if copyrighting software is permissible under strict
justice, might a loosening of the present rules better serve the ends
specified in the Constitution? 4) If 1 or 2a is answered No or 2b or 3
Yes, ought we to challenge the laws in the case of XyWrite? 5) If the
answer to 4 is Yes, what would be a good method of doing so? Suggested
answers to 5 included, if I recall correctly, just copying the software
and challenging the owners' right to object, since they had abandoned it;
seeking the aid or the Free Software Foundation or other like-minded
advocacy groups; and bringing a class-action suit to relase the software
for maintenance and development, or at least distribution.
	Part of the confusion seems to have arisen because when some people were
arguing that the law was unjust, others would respond by saying "It's the
law." Unless they take the position that unjust laws are inconceivable
(see above), that is not an answer. And while I do not hope to persuade
anyone who thinks that to change his or her mind, I must point out that
the conviction that there can be such things as unjust laws is
fundamental to Anglo-American jurisprudence, from the Declaration's
"right of the people to alter or to abolish it" to the Constitution's
"right...to petition the government for redress of grievances" (if
anything the legislature passes is ipso facto just, how could anyone have
a grievance?).
	Personally, I agree with Norman that software is not the same as
literature, and the copyright laws should recognize that fact; and that
abandonment substantially changes the nature of the situation.
Patricia