Hi.
This is exactly what the ClassicCmp web/FTP sites are for. The only real
reason things haven't appeared there yet is that I'm still in home limbo
and don't have the ability to haul out my stuff and start scanning.
FYI, my mother is a librarian and specializes in copyright law. What
more could I ask for ;). After a few chats with her we've come up with
the following criteria for posting old docs/software.
1. The company which marketed the product is out of business and it's
assets were not purchased by another company.
2. A contact for the original company cannot be located.
3. The out of production product is no longer sold as a new product.
4. There is no reasonable expectation that posting such materials
could affect the profits of an existing entity.
5. There is no reasonable expactation that such materials could be
sold for profit.
6. The original source and copyright are noted specifically.
Also, there will be a statement that we have not received permission for
use but that this use is not for profit and serves only to aid in the
preservation of old equipment. There will also be a statement that the
materials will be removed immediately at the request of a legitimate
representative of the original publisher.
Even given all of this, there is still a possibility that I could be
sued so I'll be very cautious about what I allow on the site. The
likelyhood of legal action is slim and not likely to be successful, but
I don't really want to waste time or money going to court.
As things currently stand, I will take submissions of software and
documentation that meet the above criteria.
> so we would need a home location (Bill Whitson: how about the "Archives"
> section of the classic computer web page you've set up?
> http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw/ccl.html) and some folks with scanners
> who can get things into HTML format (and others? .doc? .pdf?) and upload.
> comments on this proposal? are there already similar archives out there? -
> (i know of some Commodore ones), if so we should point to them. I'm not
> aware of any one location to go to find classic computer documentation, and
> judging from the traffic on this list it's sorely needed.
Received on Tue Jun 03 1997 - 14:44:30 BST