Re: Orphaned software and legal recourse

[Ed Cray cray@xxxxxxxx]

Norman:

I am sorry to disagree with you, but there remains both a legal and
ethical question about copying orphaned software from a bankrupt company.

In legal fact, when companies go bankrupt their remaining assets, however,
scant, are apportioned among creditors. Chances are that someone,
somewhere owns Xywrite.

They may not remember or care that they have the property, but it IS
theirs.

If TTG or its successor simply closed its doors, the firm still owns the
software.

Ethically, once one knows this, there is then a problem.

Ed

On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Norman Bauman wrote:

> I don't think there's any ethical reason not to copy orphaned software if
> the company that owns it is gone and there is no way of contacting them.
>
> As a practical matter, if the company is gone, there's no one to sue you
> for copyright infringement either. The Software Publishers Association once
> told me that when they investigate a company for piracy after a tip, they
> only look for their members' software. They ignore piracy of non-members'
> software.
>
> Norman
>
>
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