From: engelbert_buxbaum@hotmail.com   
      
   Dr John Stockton wrote:   
      
      
   > Should reproduction be allowed for an early work that the author now   
   > feels is below an acceptable standard; juvenile, wrong, or superseded by   
   > later knowledge?   
      
   Why not? One can learn from mistakes, and for some purposes redrawing   
   the line of development of a thought is important.   
      
   > Can an early edition be copied in this manner, after due time, if there   
   > has been a sequence of later editions such that the current edition is   
   > in effect a different work with the same author, subject, and title.   
      
   If newer editions are available it is not out of print   
      
   >   
   > What if a print house sets up to publish, with the permission of the   
   > copyright holders and just before the time limit, a very small and   
   > cheaply-produced print run, with the intention of extending the time   
   > without really making the edition available to the public?   
      
   Out of print means no copies can be obtained   
      
      
   > Or is the copying limited to single copies for personal use rather than   
   > for sale?   
      
   Yes, that is the idea. You are not allowed to make money from copying,   
   but you are allowed to get the information. So the issue is a clash of   
   the rights of the copyright holder to intellectual property and the   
   right of the user to obtain information from public sources. And in this   
   case freedom of information wins.   
      
   > For software, it would be better to have "Old Software Houses" - an OSH   
   > would buy, by contract, the right to distribute, unchanged, an old   
   > product, with the transfer of support responsibility and optionally a   
   > royalty per product sold.  That could include supply of PDF or printed   
   > copies of the manuals, and bug-fixes.   
      
   Buth that would require an deliberate act of the copyright holder, which   
   is perfectly permissible under current regulations. The issue is what   
   happens in the absence of such an act, if the software is simply   
   abandoned.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)