Hello Andrew,

On Friday November 23 2007 18:27, you wrote to me:

 MvdV>> Be that as it may be, the author still has ownership of
 MvdV>> whatever is left.

 AL> Exactly.  AAMOF, it is still possible to register the software at BMT
 AL> Micro. Those registration payments must be going somewhere, and my
 AL> money says that they go to Charles (eventually.)

I do not know where it eventually lands up, but what I do know is where it
comes form: those who pay for a product that is for all practical purposes
abandonware.

I have mixed feelings about registering abandonware (for money). If the
source code is really lost, there is no way the buyer can ever get bug
fixes. So is it ethical and fair to ask the full price? I think not.

OTOH, there is no reason to say "no" to prospective users who
want a registered version anyway...

 MvdV>> Other than that: so far it is just rumour that the source is
 MvdV>> lost. I have a bit of difficulty accepting Charles did not make
 MvdV>> any backups.

 AL> If the rumor is correct, it's most likely that backups were made, but
 AL> for whatever reason could not be restored.

Possibly...

 AL> Media failures are fairly common among tape backups, for example.

Yes, that happened to me once. The tape was physically ok, but I was unable
to retrieve what I needed. Just could not find it. Fortunately the damage
was limited because I still had a previous version that differed only in a
few details from the lates version. I learned from that.

 AL> I know that if I had a project the size of IRex, I would have multiple
 AL> backups on different media, and stored offsite as well.

That was the lesson I learned. ;-)

Cheers, Michiel

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