Perfection Status

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Derek_Stewart
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Perfection Status

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

I noticed that there is a version of Perfection availabke for download on the London QL & QUANTA Group website.

The download file description states:
London QL & QUANTA Group wrote: London Group - Download software
*
Perfection v6a12 - size 68kb
Update of QL Perfection Wordprocessor (c) Digital Precision 1993 - new version available as v6a12
authored by David Gilham of the London QL & Quanta Group.
This version includes the new Perfection binary, together with a new Configurator which has the TurboToolkit as a part of the binary, both are included in the Zip file.
This is to make the version compatible with as wide a range of QL systems as possible.
Please also look at the supplied Readme for contact details.

This enhanced version of Perfection takes advantage of the larger screens available with SMSQ/E and QPC2.

This distribution should be treated as an update only for current owners of Perfection.
Is this OK to use?


Regards,

Derek
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Artificer
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Re: Perfection Status

Post by Artificer »

This distribution should be treated as an update only for current owners of Perfection.
This is the key is it not? If you have bought a copy of PERFECTION surely you may use a copy of that code legally. The author of the altered bits of code has released his work as freeware. So no problem there.

This altered version of PERFECTION has been on the web for sometime, I think years. I downloaded a copy in July 2017 as I already own a copy of PERFECTION.

I make limited use of PERFECTION, mainly to read docs on the Q68 as the modified program can cover the full screen in 512x384 resolution.


Derek_Stewart
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Re: Perfection Status

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

I think the point I am trying to make, is someone that has not legally purchased a copy of Perfection, can download and run the word processor.


Regards,

Derek
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Andrew
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Re: Perfection Status

Post by Andrew »

Catch 22 - there is virtually no software to purchase for the QL ... but you may not use anything that you have not purchased !
(apart of Rwaps game sets, of course)
I guess the QL is the only retro computer scene which has this conundrum


RWAP
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Re: Perfection Status

Post by RWAP »

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

I think the point I am trying to make, is someone that has not legally purchased a copy of Perfection, can download and run the word processor.
Strictly, the answer has to be no - this is another program where the copyright is (mainly) Steve Sutton, although others were involved in creating the software. No-one has managed to track down Steve Sutton to obtain his permission for the software to be freely available.
Andrew wrote:Catch 22 - there is virtually no software to purchase for the QL ... but you may not use anything that you have not purchased !
(apart of Rwaps game sets, of course)
I guess the QL is the only retro computer scene which has this conundrum
It is not just the QL which suffers from this. The Spectrum scene has benefitted from a lot of hard work in the 90s to track down and obtain permission from copyright holders which resulted in the World of Spectrum. Unfortunately, with the new Spectrum hardware (and other retro-hardware being re-released), this has brought the issue of software rights more into the public eye, resulting in permissions being withdrawn (particularly where hardware designers / retailers) decided to use the 1000s of "free" games pre-loaded as a selling point to make more profit from the hardware. There are in fact some rom download sites which have now been removed because the attention of Atari and CAPCOM has been brought to the fore.

Unfortunately, the work to obtain permissions for QL software was left much too late and whilst there have been quite a few successes in the past few years, we still lack a number of volunteers to try and track down copyright holders and obtain permission.


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Re: Perfection Status

Post by Artificer »

Hi,
From UK Goverment intellectual property offenses :
(2A) A person (“P”) who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public commits an offence if P -

(a) knows or has reason to believe that P is infringing copyright in the work, and

(b) either-

(i)intends to make a gain for P or another person, or
(ii) knows or has reason to believe that communicating the work to the public will cause loss to the owner of the copyright, or will expose the owner of the copyright to a risk of loss.

(2B) For the purposes of subsection (2A) -

(a)“gain” and “loss”-

(i)extend only to gain or loss in money, and
(ii) include any such gain or loss whether temporary or permanent, and

(b) “loss” includes a loss by not getting what one might get.” 1
As Andrew states programs are by and large not for sale anymore, which makes much of what is discussed as "copyright infringement" under current UK law a discussion of propriety, courtesy and respecting the original authors wishes. According to the UK government the key to copyright law is not the possession of copyright but the possibility to gain or lose financially through possession of copyright as shown above. The word 'and ' above is key. Both conditions need to be satisfied. This is a moot point in the retro computer hobby area when there is little chance of gaining financially from obsolete bits of software.

As for PERFECTION where this discussion started examination of the download indicates that the updated version of PERFECTION may have been on the web since 2005 at the earliest with no challenge from the original authors. This may mean that the authors are unaware of its existence, that they have agreed to it being downloadable, that they do not care, or that they know that they have not and are unlikely to suffer any financial loss as a consequence. Whichever it is it is unlikely that the ordinary QL user given the timescale will suffer any penalty for downloading this software even if they do not possess a purchased copy of PERFECTION. The actual download is not the complete perfection package so anyone downloading it without a copy of that will be missing significant bits of that including the manual and printer driver etc.

Perhaps Quanta should use some of its remaining funds to employ a PI to track down some of these elusive software authors and make them an offer they can't refuse. :D


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Re: Perfection Status

Post by RWAP »

So far as the QL is concerned, you are correct in that there is no realistic potential gain or loss to the copyright holder.

However, the reason that the IP for some of these pieces of software are extremely difficult to resolve, is that things such as the Metacomco packages uses licences from Borland etc, and programs such as Perfection (and Text87 from memory) use various routines which went on to be used in larger commercial PC packages (the extremely fast search routine in Perfection is one instance from memory).

When I have approached and spoken to copyright holders in the past, I found that the vast majority were more than happy for their programs to be re-released as freeware. Some preferred that their programs remain on a commercial basis (with a small royalty on sales, or even donating the royalty payments to charity). A handful just refused to allow the software to be re-released without any reason.

Finding them and getting a response is the part which is difficult and takes a lot of time and effort.


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