Date   : Wed, 07 Apr 1993 11:56:18 +0100 (BST)
From   : "I Stephenson" <ian@...>
Subject: Re: BBC: How long does Copyright last?

I'd agree that all BBC software is still under copyright and will continue  
to be for the forseeable future except were it has been explicitly  
relinquieshed.

However it may be possible to persuede the copyright holders that they  
really want to relax their hold on software, as it is no longer commercialy  
viable for them to distribute.

Acorn for example recently gave away a number of 6502 co-processors. This  
is clearly an indication that they no longer consider the BBC as a valid  
product line. If anyone has the right contacts it may be possible to get  
some form of agreement allowing the non-commercial distribution of some or  
all of their software.

Prehaps some companies would be interested in some sort of shareware deal  
(it doesn't cost them, and they MAY get something back).

A number of BBC products are still commerically available so its certainly  
not legit to make any global assumptions about the copying of software (at  
least not in public ;-)). However if anyone has any good contacts within  
software companies, obtaining a disclaimer would open up a lot of software  
that's no longer available, to a lot of people who would still find it  
usefull.

Ian