Is a program not sold anymore, a freeware?

When a program is not sold anymore, because the owner have been bought by another company, what happened with their software? If the new company do not sold the old program, is the program become a freeware?

 

I think if the program is not sold anymore and it is available for download for any users then it could be considered a freeware.

 

Normally when one software company buys another all the software rights are sold as well. If the new company decides not to sell the old software, it is still protected by copyright laws, it is not freeware unless the new company decides to release it as such.

At least this is my understanding of the copyright laws. I am sure that others with a more correct knowledge will give you better advice.


Hope this helps,
BeenThereDoneThat

 

Definately not freeware. Copywrite is a long lived sucker too, I think somewhere around 50 years. The issue came up on Commodore software believe it or not, there is a company that "ownes" the commodore brandname (such as it is) and all the companies that made games still own the rights to those games, and can sue anyone caught distributing them.

Where it gets interesting IMO is what happens if a company doesn't sell it's rights and goes under anyhow. This happens so little it is more of a thought experiment than anything else.

 

Yes, it help, ty. I remember now the story about old games.

I have found a link :
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6162308.html

 

Yes, older windows is a good example. I already knew for oldversion.com.