Wow, I was looking for some MSX-BASIC info and found this topic. Do you realize that since then (when muffie started this topic) MS released MS-DOS source... (and some other companies too)
Lets say: what if we rewrite that letter to microsoft asking for MSX-DOS, MSX-BASIC and MSX BIOS sources rights to be released or relaxed (at least to use, but it would be great to make our own modifications)...
Why not checking legal status of that code before contacting Microsoft? Copyrights have a limited span of life, is very likely that copyright is expired and therefore, being free of royalties.
Copyrights have not expired and will not anytime soon. Copyright expiry term is 50 years minimum (Berne Convention), usually more. In the US and most western countries it’s authors’s life + 70 years, or 120 years for works made for hire. In other words, longer than your lifetime.
And by the time these copyrights are getting close to expiring, Disney corporation will make sure the governments extend the period again. Effectively, copyrights do not expire. Forget about it.
Besides, knowing the legal status of the code is useless if you don’t actually have access to it.
Finally, it’s possible nowadays ASCII actually owns the rights for at least some of those.
