Legal status of abandonware
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If the company that produced certain software is gone or if the company still exists but no longer sells and supports certain software, is it legal to use the software beyond its purchased license? For instance, could I install it in more machines that I originally licenced it for? Could I give a copy to a friend? There seems to be no economic harm to the owner company as it has abandoned its software but, what are the legal issues involved? If anyone is in-the-know, it would be much appreciated. Thank you all.
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If the company that produced certain software is gone or if the company still exists but no longer sells and supports certain software, is it legal to use the software beyond its purchased license? For instance, could I install it in more machines that I originally licenced it for? Could I give a copy to a friend? There seems to be no economic harm to the owner company as it has abandoned its software but, what are the legal issues involved? If anyone is in-the-know, it would be much appreciated. Thank you all.
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The terms you agreed to would still be valid unless they relinquished copyright which is unlikely.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
That's what I would assume.
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If the company that produced certain software is gone or if the company still exists but no longer sells and supports certain software, is it legal to use the software beyond its purchased license? For instance, could I install it in more machines that I originally licenced it for? Could I give a copy to a friend? There seems to be no economic harm to the owner company as it has abandoned its software but, what are the legal issues involved? If anyone is in-the-know, it would be much appreciated. Thank you all.
"Even if the copyright is not defended, copying of such software is still unlawful in most jurisdictions when a copyright is still in effect." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware[^]
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.(John 3:16) :badger:
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The terms you agreed to would still be valid unless they relinquished copyright which is unlikely.
Visit http://www.notreadytogiveup.com/[^] and do something special today.
Thank you for the reply. Perhaps it is my lack of understanding of the matter but, I feel, the problem is not the copyright in and of itself. This is not an issue of authorship but of licensing. Perhaps it will be better illustrated if I explain my particular problem. We work with a software for which we have to purchase a license yearly. The company no longer exists and, therefore, purchasing licenses has become impossible. Legally speaking, must the software be uninstalled when this period ends?
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If the company that produced certain software is gone or if the company still exists but no longer sells and supports certain software, is it legal to use the software beyond its purchased license? For instance, could I install it in more machines that I originally licenced it for? Could I give a copy to a friend? There seems to be no economic harm to the owner company as it has abandoned its software but, what are the legal issues involved? If anyone is in-the-know, it would be much appreciated. Thank you all.
Legally I suspect it's still in effect, in practice it's only the copyright holder who is going to come after you and if they didn't assign it to anyone else before going tits up. But note that there is a *very* good chance that someone owns the copyright still, it's very unlikely even in the case of bankruptcy that there is no copyright holder at all. At the very least their creditors would get some say in the assets I would think. If it's a small company and they go out of business with no hope of selling the rights to the software to anyone the only fair thing to do would be to release a final version open source with a creative commons or similar license attached before shutting down for good.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Thank you for the reply. Perhaps it is my lack of understanding of the matter but, I feel, the problem is not the copyright in and of itself. This is not an issue of authorship but of licensing. Perhaps it will be better illustrated if I explain my particular problem. We work with a software for which we have to purchase a license yearly. The company no longer exists and, therefore, purchasing licenses has become impossible. Legally speaking, must the software be uninstalled when this period ends?
Technically this isn't really a matter of "legal" or not, it's not like anyone in law enforcement cares one iota, it's a matter of whether anyone's going to come after you or not and that's got everything to do with the copyright and who owns it still. Don't be surprised if it rises up from the ashes with a new owner some day looking to sell licenses. I think that's a shitty way to license an application personally, it's holding the owner at ransom once a year. You should look at this as a great opportunity to write a clone that can work with the same data and sell it to all those people stuck in your boat, or get in contact with them and pool resources to get someone to write it (assuming it's worthwhile and there isn't someone else who already has a competing product with a more sane license agreement).
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
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Thank you for the reply. Perhaps it is my lack of understanding of the matter but, I feel, the problem is not the copyright in and of itself. This is not an issue of authorship but of licensing. Perhaps it will be better illustrated if I explain my particular problem. We work with a software for which we have to purchase a license yearly. The company no longer exists and, therefore, purchasing licenses has become impossible. Legally speaking, must the software be uninstalled when this period ends?
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Legally I suspect it's still in effect, in practice it's only the copyright holder who is going to come after you and if they didn't assign it to anyone else before going tits up. But note that there is a *very* good chance that someone owns the copyright still, it's very unlikely even in the case of bankruptcy that there is no copyright holder at all. At the very least their creditors would get some say in the assets I would think. If it's a small company and they go out of business with no hope of selling the rights to the software to anyone the only fair thing to do would be to release a final version open source with a creative commons or similar license attached before shutting down for good.
"It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." -Sam Levenson
John C wrote:
only fair thing to do would be to release a final version open source with a creative commons or similar license attached before shutting down for good
Now that's good community thinking - not the philosophy behind many companies but it should be.
Dave
BTW, in software, hope and pray is not a viable strategy. (Luc Pattyn)
Visual Basic is not used by normal people so we're not covering it here. (Uncyclopedia)