Tim's call for opening the source for orphan applications is right on target. I wish we could also do something to open access to file and document formats that were once dominant, but are now passe'. For instance, conversion of SCCS archives to other CM tool formats has been done more than once. Some of the folks who did these converters were UNIX source code licensees (like IBM), and we all have access to the "sccsfile" man page. But it would be a good bit easier if the source code to SCCS could be placed in the public domain. Maybe that's been done, but I don't remember seeing anything about it. Is SCCS source part of the FreeBSD distribution?
I have been doing word processing on PC's for 24 years now, and if I had not kept a (properly licensed) copy of WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, my old Wordstar 2.26 files would be mighty hard to decipher now. Whoever is the successor in interest to MicroPro should release the format specifications to Wordstar 2.26 and later versions. Sure, they can be reverse-engineered, but absent a functioning copy of Wordstar or a printed copy of the original document, it's hard to tell if your reverse engineering succeeded. Opening up the old formats would benefit all current WP developers, allowing them to design import and export tools more intelligently.
Are all the old obsolete WP formats protected? I would imagine copyright still applies, but surely no _patents_ were issued for these formats? Does copyright protect "expression" that is contained solely in internal corporate documents?
