3 ms·
Easy: legislate an implied obligation for ongoing support of past sales for a reasonable period of time and as part of wind down that obligation is a liability
by voisin 4y ago
Easy: legislate an implied obligation for ongoing support of past sales for a reasonable period of time and as part of wind down that obligation is a liability that must be discharged with posted credit of some sort (or the purchaser would have to take this liability on) or via open sourcing the software.
- selcuka 4y agoFair point. That's called a warranty, and they should have been legally required to support their product until the end of warranty period. Posting a notice on their website in June and shutting down the servers in September is a jerk move. My point still stands though. They can't force them to open up their trade secrets.
- Teever 4y agoAre you sure about that? If the government can make a law that says someone can't sell a particular product (Like say, children's toys with razor blades in them) why can't the government pass a law that says that if a company sells a particular catagory of product then the company must open the product up if they discontinue the product or go out of business?
- gaganyaan 4y agoAll laws are social contracts. Of course they could force them to open up their trade secrets. It wouldn't even to be something extreme, Congress could just pass a law saying "discontinuing a commercial product requires publishing everything needed to maintain that product", and that would be that.