🚀 go-pugleaf

Mike Copeland wrote:
> 
> > >> Please send me one of thoses programs. Thank you
> > >
> > >   Highly unlikely that anyone would do this, since it's illegal and
> > >unethical to do so (not to mention being the recipient of such software).
> > >Turbo Pascal - even old versions - has always been a commercial product.
> >
> > I is illegal, of course, but I'm coming to think it shouldn't be.  If
> > Borland _would_ sell the old versions, the standard rule would be
> > perfectly fair, but they don't, and there's _nobody_ from whom you
> > can legally get one of those small early versions any more.  If
> > they refuse to sell them, we ought to be free to pass around what
> > we have.
> 
>    What we feel is reasonable or proper isn't the issue here, since
> Borland has the legal right to prohibit such distribution.  As a
> practical matter, they probably wouldn't sue someone who did so, but who
> knows?  I wouldn't take the chance, regardless of my ethics which
> wouldn't permit me to do it - I continue to honor Borland's right to do
> this.

I think the problem is that some of the compiler code (in highly
modified
form, I hope) is still in use in products like Delphi.  My copy of
Delphi 1.0 is Copyright *1983* to 1995.  If they fail to protect their
copyright on the older programs, another software company could take
them
to court and have the copyright revoked because Borland isn't trying to
uphold it.  Then portions of the Delphi compiler would be in the public
domain, which wouldn't be good.  Of course, they could still distribute
TP 5 and below under a license for unlimited distribution but with
restrictions on reverse engineering.  I'm not sure how sound any of this
is legally but it would partially explain what they're doing.

> > Does _Borland_ take the view that we should be setting up with GNU
> > Pascal & such?
> 
>    I doubt Borland cares at all.  If they did, they'd be right out there
> in the marketplace with a highly competitive 32 bit DOS product (which
> they are obviously not doing...).

--
Jared Showalter
Remove the REMOVETHIS from my address to reply.