raoulduke
Experienced Member
As I sit here at my unpaid legal internship, my mind wanders back to a thought I first posted about on 68kmla. Those people lack vision to the utmost, so I am hoping there will be more constructive thoughts here.
I am a staff editor on a journal at Rutgers Law starting in a few weeks. It has no obvious relation to computing, but we are allowed/perhaps encouraged to write for journals. My longterm thought has been to produce the first cogent legal analysis of vintage computing. The implications fascinate me for reasons I won't go too far into.
I'm curious if anyone has any specific thoughts or ideas. I know the questions I'd like to ask: Can I legally acquire old software? What if it's been discontinued? What if I don't know if the person selling me a physical medium is the original owner [of the associated license]? Are there exceptions to the DCMA for obsolete media?*
What questions would you ask or what issues do you think are most important - or interesting? Or not important at all?
*There's a lot of misinformation floating around on the net but the short answer here is absolutely not. [Said misinformation largely concerns a 2006 suggestion by the Registrar of the Copyright Office, which was rejected.]
I am a staff editor on a journal at Rutgers Law starting in a few weeks. It has no obvious relation to computing, but we are allowed/perhaps encouraged to write for journals. My longterm thought has been to produce the first cogent legal analysis of vintage computing. The implications fascinate me for reasons I won't go too far into.
I'm curious if anyone has any specific thoughts or ideas. I know the questions I'd like to ask: Can I legally acquire old software? What if it's been discontinued? What if I don't know if the person selling me a physical medium is the original owner [of the associated license]? Are there exceptions to the DCMA for obsolete media?*
What questions would you ask or what issues do you think are most important - or interesting? Or not important at all?
*There's a lot of misinformation floating around on the net but the short answer here is absolutely not. [Said misinformation largely concerns a 2006 suggestion by the Registrar of the Copyright Office, which was rejected.]
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