well... here is freescales answer:

Mr. Herrmannsen,

Thanks for your suggestion but unfortunately we are not interested in pursuing this.

Regards,

Kevin

Perhaps Peter could try again, via a more direct internal contact..

he is more than welcome

Just how long is a software copyright good for these days?

i think it's like either a patent around 10 years.... or forever... just hope it's 10 years

If only there were some way of finding out for certain, we wouldn't have to idly speculate...

Patents last too long for "waiting for expiry" to be a useful strategy for hardware or software, most of the time; copyrights last even longer. And even a copyright expiry doesn't help you if you don't actually have the source-code in question; related reasoning was behind the original stipulation in the UK that copyright was only granted on printed matter if copies were deposited at the British Library, Oxford, and Cambridge -- but the Berne Convention essentially outlawed such restrictions.

Peter

damn.... seems like a dead end then.. or might there still be some hope?

of course we could pay for the rights.. but sure that will be very expensive

This (which someone on Riovolution found in the Wikipedia "Freescale" article) is unsourced but horribly plausible as a reason why Freescale/Sigmatel might have other things on their mind at about that time:


Peter

urgh - any chance of making contact through an old colleague before the lights go out?

This is a real pity. Maybe they're just not interested because they don't want to spend the time/money on finding it and working through the legal issues, particularly right now. Sounds like they're holding ship just long enough until they can abandon everything they've inherited. Would be a crying shame for the empeg code to get tossed because no one there had the inclination to do anything with it!!

On the other hand... if the company owning the code no longer exists, who will complain if somehow a pirated copy of the code makes it into the public domain?

tanstaafl.

Ahh.. but the problem now is, we've alerted them to its existence (and nobody will actually confess to having a copy of the source).

Well if there is a copy of it floating around, I tend to agree with tanstaafl. Why bother pursuing a copyright infringement (expensive) on software that longer makes you money and that you weren't bothered to do anything with in the first place...

Then again it is an assumption that they don't have Big Plans for it.

maybe if they got some money for it? but who is interested in chipping in on this?

I guess that the amount would have to be quite high for them to be interested, but I could put in some money. But maybe, since we have this recession, that the amount wouldn't be as high as it would have been without it.

Stig

I hate to think how much it would be just to cover the lawyer's fees they'd have to run up just giving it to us for free.

I'd give money for it! I'm sure many would, all depending on how much. It probably wouldn't be enough to interest a corporate though.

Perhaps a forum poll is in order?

Talking money is, IMHO, a complete waste of time - we may be able to pull together $1000 but any commercial solution is going to be orders of magnitude larger.


If we seriously want anything to happen then the only way we're going to get it is through people's contacts - and realistically I think that means Peter and co

So if you want a poll then I think it should be more along the lines of "Who's willing to buy Peter (or anyone else who even contributes to getting the source) a pint at every empeg meet ever again?"

Now if there is *anything* - monetary or otherwise - that Peter can delegate then I'd be more than happy to support the effort.

Heh.. not that he needs another one, but.. I'll donate a working Mk2a empeg to Peter if he pulls this off. Spares can be handy.

He can keep/use it himself, or as a bribe for some other key individual if need be.

This is US employment law we're talking about -- Texan employment law, at that. AFAICT the lights went out the same day.

Peter

*sigh* why the *biip* do they not want to pursue this? i think they at least should say why... and they havent used the source for the last 7 years.

hell if they want their name mentioned for free i guess that would be in order since they help us with this one



huh? i did not get that one

You're asking why a bunch of people who've never worked on this code, might be disinclined to spend time and money on putting together a release in order to give it away for nothing, for the benefit of a group of at most about 4,000 people -- and for a product that's been EOL for eight years and never contained any Sigmatel or Freescale parts in the first place?

I would have been as delighted as anyone else if they'd decided to make a release, which is why I offered you the help I did -- but there's a reason that the sort of arrangement we proposed has never, ever happened before for any product in the entire history of consumer electronics.


Someone suggested that we should get in touch with the remaining contacts there before they actually left -- but (unlike what would happen in the UK) they actually left on the day the redundancies were announced.

Peter

Anyone know a producer at 60 Minuets?

Hi,

I'll donate one with dual 250GB drives as well, plus a cash contribution if it would help.

Thanks,

Ross

why? takeing this to the media i think is a very bad choice, but i might be wrong

the problem is that someone sure has a copy of the source, but they will not say so to avoid beeing overrun with requests for a copy.

next problem is for them to say we have other plans for the source or to say we dont have plans but it will take to much time for us to write an license..

I have asked mr klein at freescale why they dont want to go ahead.. but i guess i will get no answer.. a rude way to behave if you ask me. at least they could say excatly why so everyone knows why, it will also stop the guesswork.

I would be inclined to agree - they will either be wanting no money, or a commerically sensible amount, which I imagine would be more than a couple of thousand.

I was thinking of the whole topic of gadgetry with abandoned software support. The Empeg being an example.

well.. mr klein at freescale does not respond... not even when money is mentioned... a big a**hole if you ask me