What Happens To Old Software?

whatsit asks: "I was recently reminded of a little DOS database called Nutplus (also called Nutshell in its earlier versions) and decided to contact the company that owned it in hopes that they would open source it. After some research and some tears, I found that they may be out of business! I found a Web site address: www.fairsoft.com that doesn't work. The company's name is/was Fairhaven Software. I also came across an 800 number and a long distance number for them, but both ring busy. What happens to old software when the company that owns it goes out of business? How can I go about getting rights to the source code? Does anyone have experience with a similar situation? Do copyrights on these pieces of software ever expire?" Are there any ways to obtain the rights to software after the parent company is long gone (assuming the code happens to exist after the lifespan of said company)?

Comments

still a good question

[evil_deceiver]

Yeah, the address works for me too, and seems to be the same company & the same software. But the question's still valid. I mean, what happens with shareware programs (especially crippled ones) when their author dies (as the creator of PKZip recently did), or the contact information circulated with the program ceases to be accurate? What happens to proprietary software when the company folds? IMO, it should become public domain, but U.S. copyright law doesn't work that way -- it protects creations for 70 years after the last author's death or 120 years after creation (assuming software is covered by this same law, which isn't entirely clear). In a lot of these cases, of course, source code simply won't be available. Should the public be allowed to use legal maneuvering to obtain source code for a program upon the author's death? I mean, it's not likely that today's computer programs will be of much use in 70 years, so ideally you'd want the source much sooner. But wouldn't that involve sort of a post-mortem violation of privacy? I don't know . . . .

Now, if the author or company disappears for whatever reason, but reappears later, or someone with a legitimate claim to ownership of the program is still around, opening the source or making the program public domain prematurely could be a big problem. I don't know; I don't seem to be providing many answers here. Oh well.