Date   : Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:20:03 +0100
From   : list-a_cloud9.bbc-micro@... (Theo Markettos)
Subject: MOS6 - Any programmers want to see a free

In article <065F9490C6FC451C9B42BA8CE0517F20@...> you wrote:
> If we don't ask, we'll never know!
> 
> My guess is that the biggest problem will be getting someone at Pace to
> take the time to find what they have and check they really do own the
> rights. It might not be a trivial task and people tend to have their
> plates full enough at work as it is doing 'important' things.

We went through this when Pace owned RISC OS.  The general view was that
Pace's lawyers wouldn't pass the time of day without a 5 or 6 figure sum,
and so any RISC OS effort wouldn't even pay for the management time.

However Castle eventually bought RISC OS, and the ex-Pace engineers have
been good at releasing the source under Castle's shared source licence, and
prodding their contacts at other companies (ANT, ARM etc) to get permissions
for the bits that Castle don't own.

The trouble is you'd need to find someone in Pace who was enthusiastic
enough to dig through what they have, and have the right contacts in the
legal department.

The other thing that's been said (this is all from newsgroup threads, I have
no way of verifying it) is that anything not specifically assigned belongs
to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (as purchaser of Acorn), and their records
were lost in the World Trade Center.  And they're even less likely to pass
the time of day.

Theo