Copyright and abandon stuff are separate issues. It's certainly possible that software is abandon, and that nobody will come after you for using it. That does *not* however, mean the copyright on that software has been invalidated. If the copyright holder (whoever that may be) decided to enforce copyright, even though they aren't selling, supporting, or indeed even acknowlodging that the software exists, they would still have the legal right to do so. Is this right? Probably not, but that's the way the law is written. There was an attempt (in 2001-2002) when copyright law came up for review to get abandon software exempted from copyright restrictions, but the attempt failed. It was supposed to be revisited in 2008-2009 ( I think) but I have heard nothing about whether it actually was or not. In short, while abandon software is still under copyright, and downloading copyrighteded software is illegal, there's nothing to prevent you from doing so if you choose to do so. The only caveat is that: if (for any reason whatsoever) the copyright holder decides to enforce their right to that software, then you would be in trouble, plain and simple.
Now, in reality, it's not that cut and dry, and everyone knows that. Just be careful, and try to be reasonable, and it's likely nothing will happen to you, but do be advised that just because someone doesn't prosecute for copyright infringement, doesn't mean they won't do so in the future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
