ZX81 Software releases

[Philsan]

It would be nice to have a sticky thread with all new homebrews like the one that exists in Vic-20 forum:
http://sleepingelephant.com/ipw-web/bul ... php?t=5090
As you can see, members post in that thread using standard formatting:
Name:
Author:
Released:
Requirements:
Description:
Screenshots:
Download link:
Discussion thread:

[RWAP]

OK - what a good idea - I have made this a sticky for people to announce their new software titles

[Philsan]

Thank you Rich.
I now see that many new games are posted in forum's Games section.
Perhaps a similar thread should me opened there.

[XavSnap]

Bad news...

Our new games will be referenced in the futur "abandon-ware" list !
Just let me alive !

[RWAP]

Bad news...

Our new games will be referenced in the futur "abandon-ware" list !
Just let me alive !

I can't say that I understand.

There will not be a future 'abandon-ware' list - well certainly nothing from me along those lines, as I stick with copyright law and do not recognise any such thing as abandon-ware (there is no legal basis for it in the UK where copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 60 years).

[angus]

As far as the UK goes I think "abandonware" has become something of an urban legend. As pointed out above, there is no basis in law. The rights to those games, even 30 year old computer games, are still held by somebody. In some cases it is the author, in other cases the house which published the work or in the case of defunkt houses whoever ended up with the rights to their catalogue.

In many instances, possibly the majority, such rights owners are happy for us to swap games on the internet (in the case of the Zeddy usually as P files). But that is a permission they have given us, it is not any right that we are exercising.

However unlikely, it is always possible that some publishers might choose to release software for sale online or on a CD, SD card (or or other physical format).

Any new releases, whether released for sale (eg Cronosoft) or as freeware remain under copyright. The only difference being that where a publisher releases a game or other program as freeware they are specifically allowing free distribution.

[RetroTechie]

Abandonware is not a legal concept... (and never has been)

In general it refers to software whose authors can't be determined (eg. because no-one knows what happened to software house XYZ), can't be contacted because no current/working contact info can be found, or those authors/rights holders who simply never reply to questions.

So it doesn't change anything in the legal sense, but it's still a valid software category, or a "tag" if you will to stick onto those softwares where it applies.

And even in the legal sense there might be corner cases. For example: what when an author dies, never signed away any rights (so those rights would be inherited by his next of kin), but that author doesn't have any living relatives anymore? I'd expect software to pass into public domain in that case, but who knows. And I'm pretty sure there's cases more complicated than that...

[RWAP]

Abandonware is not a legal concept... (and never has been)

In general it refers to software whose authors can't be determined (eg. because no-one knows what happened to software house XYZ), can't be contacted because no current/working contact info can be found, or those authors/rights holders who simply never reply to questions.

So it doesn't change anything in the legal sense, but it's still a valid software category, or a "tag" if you will to stick onto those softwares where it applies.

Actually, it will be interesting to see what the changes to the UK's copyright law contained in the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 have on software - it talks about orphaned works, and whilst the media seem to have focussed on the impact it may have on images uploaded to the internet, there was nothing in the draft bill which precludes it from applying to anything where the author / copyright holder is not identified / or cannot be found.

The devil is in the detail (or so they say) - the Act itself does not yet appear to have been published and much of the rules will be contained in separate regulations issued by the minister responsible!

There is also going to be a question mark over its legality as it contradicts numerous international treaties and also breaks the rules about giving Ministers powers to take away individual property rights.

And even in the legal sense there might be corner cases. For example: what when an author dies, never signed away any rights (so those rights would be inherited by his next of kin), but that author doesn't have any living relatives anymore? I'd expect software to pass into public domain in that case, but who knows. And I'm pretty sure there's cases more complicated than that...

If a person does not leave a will and their next of kin cannot be traced under the rules of intestacy, then their property passes into the hands of the state - who will always hand it back should relatives be found in the future. Rights to software would therefore pass to either the person's next of kin, or the State, not the public domain.

[msellan]

I totally agree with everything in this thread regarding the mythical notion of "abandonware" even with differences between US and UK law, but I thought it might be helpful to share a little bit of language we use in trying to clarify this "edge case" where copyright holders can't be located at least with regard to documents (books, manuscripts, etc) here in the library. We provide a disclaimer that reads in part:

"This item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. However, for this item, either no rightsholder(s) have been identified or one or more rightsholder(s) have been identified but none have been located. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use."

FWIW,

-mark

[RWAP]

"This item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. However, for this item, either no rightsholder(s) have been identified or one or more rightsholder(s) have been identified but none have been located. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use."

Great bit of non-legal nonsense there - there is nothing in copyright law which prevents someone reading a book - it is the library which is breaking the copyright laws by providing the book if they have not been given permission to do so

It would be great if the Bern Convention on copyright could be updated to include abandonware for digital material, but it is nigh impossible to get countries to agree on anything so unlikely that they would ever change this. Arguably it could not apply to works produced before the treaty was updated anyway, as people would have created those works believing that they have protection of copyright for 50 years or so...