Highland Ham wrote:
It's a shame there is not a law that allows software to be used freely
after x years of no new updates.
=================================
If older software is no longer of commercial gain to the
developer(s),he/she/they can always declare it to be licensed under the
GPL = General Public Licence as established through the Free Software
Foundation . Under the GPL the software can then be modified , sold by
anybody which MIGHT extends its useful life.
Much Linux software is covered by the GPL (current version 3)

Frank GM0CSZ / KN6WH

GPL'ed software has to be released with source code, which means work
for the developer. If he/she has lost interest, they are not likely to
dig out the source and make it available.

I think there should be an automatic right to use the software after
(say) 8 years of no updates, no sales and no similar product from the
same developer. But I don't feel sufficiently strongly about it that I
will lobby my MP about it!