Date   : Sun, 17 May 2009 18:07:12 +0100
From   : samwise@... (samwise)
Subject: Copyright

Hi,

I was lucky enough to wangle an invitation to the Computer
Conservation Society's gathering of some of the BBC Micro creators at
the Science Museum in London last year.  The same question was raised
during the Q&A session, which Sophie (formally Roger) Wilson answered
as she'd worked with Acorn through many of it's incarnations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson

She basically summed it up as being a legal minefield - and that it
was unlikely to ever be sorted out without bringing in expensive
lawyers.

I guess that doesn't help much - but it might be worth dropping her a
mail.  Perhaps she can at least point you in the direction of who
might possibly have a claim ...

Peter.

2009/5/17 Darren Grant <darren.grant@...>:
> I have been trying to establish the current ownership of software and
> documents from the Acorn 8bit era. Does anyone have any insight into what
> happened. It seems that only the RiscOS and ARM technologies were ever
> transferred from what was left of Acorn.
>
> Have any of the companies that have owned parts of Acorn ever hinted that
> the BBC Micro material belonged to them ?
>
> The reason for asking is that I am working on a project to clarify all legal
> issues relating to BBC Micro Emulation as there seems to be some grey areas
> about ownership. The problem is that there is currently a possibility that a
> copyright troll could attempt to block distribution of MOS with emulators,
> something I am keen to avoid. One of the ways to potentially prevent this
> would be to get the companies that have had some ownership of Acorn assets
> to provide a statement that they do not have ownership and if they did later
> discover that they did have some rights that they would permit use of the
> Acorn 8bit software.
>
> Darren
>
>
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