Actually not strictly true, as the laws of intestacy would determine that the rights would vest in the next of kin - they would only vest in the crown if no next of kin could be traced.Dave wrote:If a person personally owns a copyright and dies, not leaving the copyright to anyone in a will, outside of the UK, the copyright continues but the item is abandonware. Within the UK, the copyright converts to the Crown, unless the original holder simply specified otherwise.
True - however the problem is that if the corporation has ceased to exist - it is nigh impossible to find out what happened to their assets - the company may have merged, amalgamated or been bought out. Not that many companies are wound up without a sale of assets of some sort.Dave wrote: If a corporation dissolves, and the copyright assets are not transferred, they do not revert to the Crown, and truly meet the definition of "abandonware."
In the case of 25+ year old software, finding out what happened can be difficult and costly - the records on Companies House's website do not go back that far and you may have to pay for a company search and then purchase the various winding up documents to see what the final accounts showed.
Even worse - most companies (if they were incorporated) involved in the QL still exist in one form or another and you tend to get a 'I don't know' response if you ask them as to the copyright - Psion are a case in point - they believe they sold the rights to their QL software but do not recall whom to.
The other copyright holders tended to be small traders, or unincorporated and it is nigh impossible to track them down!