Legacy Software

Back in the dark times, before the Internet was publicly accessible, several other networks offered a variety of software. Almost all of it was free and/or open source. And then came the IBM PC, bringing with it a "pay me" culture. Soon, all of this software started having conditions attached…the most long-lasting of which was the birth of shareware. At the time, many considered this to be a very good thing. You get to try software before you decide to buy it. And then it hit…the 

broken link, rendering what was otherwise useful software annoying at best, with nag screens; or ineffectual at worst, with key features unavailable.

Since those times, the problem has continued…broken links sabotaging user’s relationship with software. I’m not saying that this was ever an intended consequence, but it is certainly a reality. Many was the time that I downloaded a popular piece of shareware and liked it well enough to want to buy it…but I couldn’t because the author’s email address had changed. Using tools such as gopher, you could attempt to track down the author at their new locale, but let’s get real…that was a journey only for the purest of the Pollyanna optimists. Nope. The chain of contact was broken, and so was the software.

Now, if the author was nice enough to provide the source code, at least you could then take matters into your own hands. Thus is it today, with the Open Source movement (of which I’ve been a small practitioner on both sides of the aisle, writing both my own code as well as modifying the code of others). The value of Open Source software isn’t that it’s free (almost all of it is, of course), but in the fact that long after the providers of the code have abandoned it, the code is still available for useful work.

In all of the talk about DRM (Digital Rights Management) and the effects of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), there is little comment about what happens when lines of communication are interrupted. Many companies now require a somewhat reliable Internet connection so that they can verify (or spy…for the less ethically fastidious) that only properly licensed software is being run. ‘course, if for some reason you don’t have a reliable Internet connection—you decided to move to the back country for the quiet…though you still like having the usefulness of a computer—then it’s only a matter of time when some little piece of software (could be media files you downloaded, could be your OS) decides that you are no longer a legal user of the software.

Yes, that was an extreme example, but there are many that aren’t so extreme. I currently have an embarrassing number of programs that need to regularly call home if they are to run well (or at all). On a few occasions I’ve had to buy new software because the old software is no longer being supported and will no longer find its once-reliable connection. Other times, I’ve had to call a company’s support in order to keep software running once their DRM system SNAFUs. It’s frustrating.

Then again, maybe it’s just me. As I come from those days in the way-back when the philosophy that software should work, and should, for the most part, be free; it’s not a surprise that I still bristle at the greed culture that seeped in and took over the networks and the Internet. It’s also no surprise that I like open source software for the security I feel that if everything else goes bad, I can still get the software to work (remember kiddies…computer literacy is more than knowing how to blog, email, and surf). Given my prejudices on this, I still think that we need to do something about keeping legacy software runable.

How about something like this: a central repository where all non-open source code/programs are registered and housed. This site is independent of any of the software companies and serves the sole purpose of maintaining links, keys, overrides, backdoors, and whatever else is necessary to keep software running in the absence of the original author/licenser. You get a piece of software that needs a key but the company no longer exists? Go to the repository and they can get your software working. But, I can hear the MBAs out there shouting: what about the licence fees? Sorry Charlie…if you can’t be bothered with maintaining your software and continuing a good relationship with your customers/licensees, then you don’t deserve to profit from them. With great greed comes great responsibility. Oh, you can still retain proprietary rights to the source code, but you don’t get to make software-slaves of anyone foolish enough to step into your web.

My proposed repository isn’t designed to be a way to circumvent still-active and supported programs. People and companies should be able to try and gather what profits they feel they deserve, but that doesn’t mean that they are the only ones with rights. The repository is merely a tool to protect the rights of software users. If software is still active but the links have changed, they can tell the public how to reconnect. When software is dropped…considered past its prime…but people still use it, they shouldn’t be compelled to have to always have to pay. That’s just wrong.