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2022-08-26
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A B O U T O L D P R O G R A M S
by Dave Moorman
The question on your minds must be
this: How dare LOADSTAR publish the
intellectual property of Activision,
Bally Midway, or other commercial
publisher? We dare because, quite
simply, Activision (or the multi-
national that now owns them) has no
use for a market of 250 people. They
do not currently publish this
software. Has anyone called a customer
support line recently about a C=
product?
Even the label "customer" is gone.
We are now [consumers]. Our purpose in
life is to buy, use, and dispose of
stuff. Consume. This rather small
amount of digital data (last month,
Tapper is 131 blocks -- and how much
did you pay for it new??) has been,
by any mega-conglomerate accounting
method, consumed. It doesn't matter.
But note -- just as the big boys
were getting really big, the copyright
laws were changed to "life plus 75
years". So, in theory, this software
can be public domain 75 years after
the owner ceases to exist. But that
will never happen, because before a
huge company disappears, some other
huger company will gobble it up --
intellectual properties and all.
I believe we need to honor
copyrights -- when someone is
endeavoring to make a living or
operating a business with the
property. But for a corporation to sit
on a piece of software forever, just
because it owns it, is -- well, that
is the worst sort of slum lording. We
really need an "out of print" clause
to copyrights. If a creative work is
not available to the public for -- say
-- five years, then it goes public
domain. Perhaps a ten year limit
should be put on films.
This would encourage a new
business -- print by demand. It is
possible now to print one copy of a
paperback for about $20. (That is what
Fender Tucker is doing.) I can imagine
a number of small printing businesses
getting public domain texts in digital
format, and producing books directly
from computers.
Or better yet, we are currently
using a Bible Study from the United
Methodist Publishing House which I buy
and download each week. The price is a
healthy $8 -- but that includes the
right to copy the material as many
times as needed. I made 30 copies of
last week's lesson, that makes the per
student price $0.26, plus copier
costs.
I would bet the big corporations
would be quick to do this also -- once
they see their prize possessions
slipping out of their fingers. In
truth, just keeping a web site open
with the copyright material available
for paid downloading would protect
their copyright.
In such a case, Tapper would be
available from Bally Midway and
Pitfall! could be downloaded from
Activision, and LOADSTAR would be
directly and adversely affecting these
companies by publishing pirated
software.
Speaking of which -- when a pirate
buried some treasure, regardless of
how ill-gotten a gain it was, anyone
who found the treasure took ownership.
It didn't matter which King's face was
stamped on the gold!
DMM