Comment on abandonware empires
Veraxus@kbin.social 10 months agoI would. Not only would I do so voluntarily, but I also support STRONG consumer protection laws that would force any product or software or copyright or patent into public domain the instant it’s been unavailable for sale for 3 or more years or has gone without update for 5 years.
Our public domain and consumer protections are pathetic, and should be vigorously bolstered and defended.
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
I don’t think you’ve really thought this through.
If you force a company to continue support they will just give it a stupid price tag. “Sure we will continue to support this $250k microscope, if you would like us to write a windows 11 client for you that will cost $1m.”
Veraxus@kbin.social 10 months ago
That sort of thing already happens in the enterprise world. If they want to abandon it, or even unintentionally abandon it, then it becomes public domain.
DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 10 months ago
I think you missed my point.
I’m saying that you can’t legislate that abandoned software must become public domain. If you asked a company whether it was abandoned they would just say yes it’s still supported, with a completely impractical price tag for support.