Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!crdgw1!pisces!kassover
From: kassover@pisces.crd.ge.com (David Kassover)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Questions on shareware fees.
Keywords: shareware
Message-ID: <6233@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Date: 21 Mar 90 22:19:53 GMT
References: <3262@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU> <629@cica.cica.indiana.edu>
Sender: news@crdgw1.crd.ge.com
Organization: Aule-tek, Inc.
Lines: 30

In article <629@cica.cica.indiana.edu> vschonau@aqua.ucs.indiana.edu writes:
...
>>> 5) If a company goes bankrupt or out of business, is it illegal to get
>>>    copies of their product?
>>Well, there you've got me. I don't know. Any lawyers out there?
>
>I would assume not.  Although it depends who is the owner of the copyright:
>the company or the author......if the latter, there go your $$.
>
A copyright does not expire upon the expiration of the owner.  If
the copyright was owned by a company, then it is included in the
assets of the company when the company is liquidated.  *Somebody*
or some other company now owns the copyright.  Ownership of a
copyright does not imply an obligation to publish, or republish.
It also does not imply an obligation to enforce it.  Caveat
emptor.

Now, some authors enter into a software escrow arrangement,
whereby if certain conditions obtain, the escrowed software
(usually some form of machine readable source code) becomes the
property of the license purchaser.  Generally speaking, such
property rights *DO NOT* include the right to redistribute the
software and derivative works.  The purpose of these agreements
is to allow the licensee some peace of mind with respect to
support.

By the way, they're expensive to set up (especially the first
one, when you have no boilerplate), and generally cost the
licensee a bundle "for the insult".  Needless to say, I doubt any
shareware author or licensee would be interested.