art wrote:
On 4 Nov, 16:20, Denny wrote:
Brian is unlikely to either agree to sharing or to provide a new
copy...

I already have two copies which are paid for so I can
share one with another person or give it as a gift
Seems wierd to me that a patent costs a lot of money to get
and requires a maintenance fee every two years to provide
protection in the name of science as well as forcing
publication for public reading Yet a computor program
has similar protection as a trade secret or better which lasts for
an awefull long time and can be used for the prevention
of the advance of science by not making it available so
the science can be advanced.
I think the public is realising that the feds are incompetant and the
law requires extensive costs to the owners with little chance of
returns.
I see it done in the musical industry and there are plenty of places
on
the net that furnish "abandoned" computor programs. We have plenty
of laws in the U.S. but the feds are not interested in enforcement
anymore.
Judges also are not willing to get involved with such nuisance cases
either
since damages are not being proven as extensive and the rights of
"fair use" laws
are making things both difficult and costly. The entertainment
industry has
very deep pockets but are finding that that is not enough since it
is
now considered a "scoff" law. A patent holder knows first hand that
it is nigh impossible to stop piracy unless the pockets are really
deep and
big profits and competition is at stake.
Art


It's a shame there is not a law that allows software to be used freely
after x years of no new updates.

I recall reading that some people have bought Cray supercomputers for
use at home as a hobbiest. But apparently the software to run them is
specific to the S/N of the machine, and you can't get it without paying
huge amounts of money. Seems a bit odd if the machine is 10 or more
years old. There is no commercial loss to a company if someone hobbyiest
is running an old machine that is less powerful than his PC.

I know Sun Microsystems have been helpful in supplying old software
(SunOs + others) to people that want to use it on old machines. But Cray
were not apparently. And from what I understand, its not as easy to copy
on a Cray.