Subject: Re: Cnet Article on Abandonware
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From: Phoenyx <quazar@dcnet2000.com>
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Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2000 18:27:52 -0500
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> But if you were to look at companies like Sirius Software, Adventure
> International, Muse Software, etc., the people(s) who inherits the
> copyrights has the right to legally shut down illegal distribution of
> their intellectual properties. And all abandonware people know this.

Here's an interesting excerpt along with the reference source. It makes an
interesting point regarding software from companies. IE 'works for hire'. It
states that the company owns the copyright but doesn't mention anything about
the copyright reverting back to the person who created it. It doesn't mention
anything regarding works sold under contract, like those programs people sent
to Nibble. I think those works fall into the last category, IE a separate
contribution to a periodical.

Of course, it doesn't mention what happens to copyrights of companies that
become defunct either.

---

Copyright Office 
Library of Congress 
Washington, DC  20559 
202-479-0700 
 
Source:  Copyright Basics, Circular 1, Copyright Office, Library  
of Congress, Washington, DC, January 1991 

.....

Who Can Claim Copyright 
 
Copyright protection subsists from the time the work is created  
in fixed form; that is, it is an incident of the process of authorship. 
The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property  
of the author who created it.  Only the author or those deriving their  
rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright. 
 
In the case of works made for hire, the employer and not the  
employee is presumptively considered the author.  Section 101 of the  
copyright statute defines a "work made for hire" as: 
 
(1)  a work prepared by an employee within the scope of  
his or her employment; or 
 
(2)  a work specially ordered or commissioned for use as a  
contribution to a collective work, as a part of a motion picture or  
other audiovisual work, as a translation, as a supplementary  
work, as a compilation, as an instructional text, as a test, as  
answer material for a test, or as an atlas, if the parties expressly  
agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall  
be considered a work made for hire . . . . 
 
The authors of a joint work are co-owners of the copyright in the  
work, unless there is an agreement to the contrary. 
 
Copyright in each separate contribution to a periodical or other  
collective work is distinct from copyright in the collective work as a  
whole and vests initially with the author of the contribution. 

.....

-- 

Thank you for your time and interest. I hope it was helpful
or at least interesting.

Phoenyx,

Apple2 user since March 1984

Links to Phoenyx's pages:
preferred..... http://zip.to/Phoenyx_A2
alternate..... http://www.tinyangeldesigns.com/Apple2