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General Discussion / Re: Abandonware
« on: December 01, 2017, 06:16:51 am »
I would not support this.
Going back to the book analogy, if I write a book I expect to own the copyright to that book for the period of time that it is protected. That generally means that I'll own the rights as long as I am alive, and then my estate / family / etc will continue to own the rights for 50 years after my death.
Whether or not I chose to update or support that book is not relevant. Whether or not I chose to have the book available in publication that entire time is not relevant. What is relevant is that I spent the time and effort to write the book, provide the product, and for the duration that it is protected under law it should be up to me (or those to whom the ownership has been passed) to decide on the fate of that work. If I chose to offer it to the public domain / a free to use license / a creative commons license / etc - then that should be up to me, not up to some law.
Software should be treated similarly. Time and effort goes into the development and coding of software and that work should be protected - whether or not the software gets updates, support, etc. If something becomes abandoned then as long as it is still considered protected then it should be up to the owner of those copyrights to decide its fate.
Going back to the book analogy, if I write a book I expect to own the copyright to that book for the period of time that it is protected. That generally means that I'll own the rights as long as I am alive, and then my estate / family / etc will continue to own the rights for 50 years after my death.
Whether or not I chose to update or support that book is not relevant. Whether or not I chose to have the book available in publication that entire time is not relevant. What is relevant is that I spent the time and effort to write the book, provide the product, and for the duration that it is protected under law it should be up to me (or those to whom the ownership has been passed) to decide on the fate of that work. If I chose to offer it to the public domain / a free to use license / a creative commons license / etc - then that should be up to me, not up to some law.
Software should be treated similarly. Time and effort goes into the development and coding of software and that work should be protected - whether or not the software gets updates, support, etc. If something becomes abandoned then as long as it is still considered protected then it should be up to the owner of those copyrights to decide its fate.