[Info-vax] OpenVMS Hobbyist Notification

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 3/8/20 7:57 PM, Dave Froble wrote:
> On 3/8/2020 1:14 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) <helbig at asclothestro.multivax.de> 
>> wrote:
>>> In article <r42p8k$9s5$1 at panix2.panix.com>, kludge at panix.com (Scott
>>> Dorsey) writes:
>>>
>>>> Yes.  This is what "abandonware" means.  It's software that is no 
>>>> longer
>>>> available from the manufacturer but which is legally constrained from
>>>> open distribution.
>>>
>>> I had the impression that some here thought that it meant that if it is
>>> no longer available from the manufacturer, then one somehow has the
>>> right to do what one wants with it.
>>
>> It's true that some people do feel that way, believing that if there is
>> nobody to enforce the law that it is okay not to obey it.
>>
>> But that is a moral issue, and not relevant to the definition of what 
>> it is.
>> --scott
>>
> 
> Just trying to understand.  (Right)  :-)
> 
> So if I throw something (that I own and don't allow anyone else to have 
> it) in the trash, and do not give anyone else permission to use it, and 
> someone finds it and uses it, what is that?
> 

It's called apples and oranges.  No one is throwing the IP that is VMS
in the trash.  And to make things even more complicated, in most places
dumpster diving is also illegal because throwing something something in
the dumpster does not make it public domain it only changes the owner
from the original to the trash company, many of whom actually go thru
the dumpster looking for things of value.


bill