neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) (02/05/91)
What is the current copyright status of NEOchrome? Is it Public Domain or what? My ST came with version 0.5 free on the language disk. I believe that version 1.00 was on sale in the UK some years ago (for ~15 pounds). Now I see it advertised by Public Domain libraries. If it is Public Domain, can it be packaged as a 'Free Public Domain Disk' with a commercial program? Not only that but I have see a completely decompiled/disassembled and reworked version of NEOchrome that contains many, MANY, new features. What is the legality of doing this with the original program and how does it affect its distribution? +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ! DISCLAIMER:Unless otherwise stated, the above comments are entirely my own ! ! ! ! Neil Forsyth JANET: neil@uk.ac.hw.cs ! ! Dept. of Computer Science ARPA: neil@cs.hw.ac.uk ! ! Heriot-Watt University UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!neil ! ! Edinburgh, Scotland, UK "That was never 5 minutes!" ! +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
silvert@cs.dal.ca (Bill Silvert) (02/06/91)
In article <2089@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> neil@cs.hw.ac.uk (Neil Forsyth) writes: > >What is the current copyright status of NEOchrome? Is it Public Domain or what? >My ST came with version 0.5 free on the language disk. I believe that >version 1.00 was on sale in the UK some years ago (for ~15 pounds). >Now I see it advertised by Public Domain libraries. Up until 0.9 NEOchrome was a freebie with the ST. Ver. 1.0 was commercial, and Atari stopped bundling it. That was a long time ago, and I don't know the current status. Technically I suppose that giving a bundled copy of ST software to someone who bought a later ST without it (including NEOchrome, 1st Word, etc.) is illegal, although a lot of that goes on. But a free copy of NEOchrome 1.0 or later is definitely pirated. -- William Silvert, Habitat Ecology Division, Bedford Inst. of Oceanography P. O. Box 1006, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, CANADA B2Y 4A2. Tel. (902)426-1577 UUCP=..!{uunet|watmath}!dalcs!biomel!bill BITNET=bill%biomel%dalcs@dalac InterNet=bill%biomel@cs.dal.ca