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  Ed, 12 Oct 2000 @ 1:27pm

  
  

  Won't Happen

  As much sense as this proposal makes, it just won't happen in most cases. A lot of software packages (probably most) contain material licensed from third parties (e.g. fonts, dictionaries and other databases, misc. libraries, etc.) and it takes time (in other words, money) to either secure the rights to release these materials in a free product or to rework the product to remove such encumberances.

  I doubt you could even get so much as a pledge from the publisher to not pursue copyright infringement action against people who copy old versions, and again it's because that type of position could get them in trouble with 3rd party suppliers of parts of their product.

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  • 

    mhh5, 12 Oct 2000 @ 6:09pm

    
    

    Re: Won't Happen

    Hmmm. I guess older Mac OS versions don't license 3rd party fonts, etc.? B/c Apple has made anything older than OS 8 public... While I agree this petition probably won't do anything, I'm not sure I actually know the most compelling reason for it not to happen. Other than older versions of MS Word are actually easier to use, so if they made it public, they might never sell another version that has the annoying paperclip in it....

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