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

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

But Kari, have you considered whether there is valid copyright still?

While it is true that since 1976, there has been an enormous
protectionist trend in copyright in the US, whoever may be the
copyright holder of XyWrite (and nobody knows anything solid on this
issue, except that TTG is assumed to be the holder and that they have
been 'unavailable' for decades), the trademark 'XyWrite' probably now
counts as abandoned, under US trademark law. It has become difficult
to abandon copyright; but it may be even more difficult to find out
if there is a valid owner for XyWrite. It is clear that some rotten
lawyering has occurred. I imagine it is possible that NB may be under
some restrictions; and they may be prevented from stating what those
restrictions are through NDA.


I am inclined to believe that no valid copyright, patent, or
trademark protection now exists for XyWrite.



At 31/05/2015 15:40, you wrote:
> Bill,
>
> This is based mainly on copyright. The copyright is still valid. It
> is not in the public domain. It is just something that is no longer
> marketed, and is available for a free download. Still, there was
> never a free version. So it is not freeware. Freeware is something
> that is intentionally distributed without charge by the developer.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Kari Eveli
> LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
> lexitec@xxxxxxxx
>
> *** Lexitec Online ***
> Lexitec in English: http://www.lexitec.fi/english.html
> Home page in Finnish: http://www.lexitec.fi/
>
> 31.5.2015, 16:25, Bill Troop wrote:
> > > While XyWrite 4 is not legally freeware,
> >
> > How do you know that, Kari? I think that's way too positive and
> > potentially misleading a statement to make given the circumstances here.