flightcraft-simulations vulcan

[John]

This might seems a silly question, but this manufacturer hasn't been around for years and you simply can't buy it anymore I'd love to get my hands on the prototype and B1 models that were contained within this pack. Any ideas?

http://www.flightsim.com/main/notams02/fcs1019.htm

Kind regards

John

[John]

Actually ignore that, one of the guys at the outhouse says that even if the company is long gone and you can't buy it anymore and it would be illegal to share. And there's no way I'd want to break the rules.. any other ideas?

Thanks for reading

JR

[Chris Trott]

Actually, it depends on how long it's been since the company ceased to exist and whether the maker of the model can still be contacted. If the answer to the first is 7 years and the second is no, then it is considered "abandonware" and thus can be distributed as freeware only. This is because the commercial protections (copyrights and trademarks) expire 7 years after the last renewal. However, the intellectual property rights do remain so someone cannot take the model as their own and re-release it under their name or for sale.

[John]

Thanks Chris, well it's not 7 years.

I'll try another route.

Kind regards

John

[Garry Russell]

Copyright last for a lot longer than that....I think it's 28 years after last renewal or if the author is still alive it is until his death plus 70 years.

It's complex and in various grouping but it is not as short as seven years for sure.

[John]

Thanks Gary.

Well I'll call that a dead idea than

Thanks

John

[Chris Trott]

Copyrights do last for 70+ years, but trademarks don't. There is case law (and pending action) to have trademark law applied to copyright when applied to software to limit the longevity of the copyright(s) so that software abandoned or orphaned can pass into public domain in a timely fashion. There are other methods of proving "abandonment" of software works to make it public domain/freeware, but those vary by country.

[Garry Russell]

To be honest Chris...unless it's many, many years it is always a bit of a grey area.

[grumpyoldb]

Flightcraft simulations was headed by Dave Haskell. Haven't heard from him for ages but he is a mate of John Burtenshawe. John is normally known as Vulcan Driver on MAIW.

http://www.militaryaiworks.com/team.html

Hope this helps.

[Chris Trott]

I'm afraid it always will be too Garry. That's the thing with rapidly advancing technologies. When is "old" really "old"?