Legal Question in Technology Law in Arizona

Re: Software License Expiry

No, which is an anomaly - the copyright still lasts for 50 years from first publication. However, you may be in luck. If the company has gone out of business and been liquidated, then its assets theoretically would have been distributed to its creditors. That would include copyright to the software. However, if the liquidator hasn't bothered to sell the copyright and has sold all the other assets, then he has implicitly released the copyright into the public domain which means you can use it freely. If unsure, you could contact the liquidator to find out.

If the software author can't be found but you're not sure if they exist any longer, then you theoretically shouldn't use the software without an additional licence, but as a matter of practicality you could not be blamed for using the software and delaying payment of the licence fee until you find the author's details.

Re: Software License Expiry

Welcome to an object lesson of the total misfit of computer software into the law of copyright. Most software has a useful life measured in at most a decade, while the protection it enjoys will likely last longer than our lifetimes. Programs with no commercial value still are protected (for example, when did you last purchase a copy of Windows 3.1 or WordPerfect 5, both of which were dominant in the early 1990s but now are nowhere to be found?). The copyright owners lost interest (and will not support these products) long ago, but the Business Software Alliance will still ding you if they audit you and find such software in use.

To minimize your downside risk, try writing to the software publishers listed in the program documentation and ask whether they care if you make additional copies...

Best wishes,

LDWG