Fritz 5.32 and older Chessbase products really free?

[pozzo-balbi]

I see that Ed Schröder claimed here
[Moderation] It is OK to point out breaches of copyright. But then please do not copy the offending links here, as that would just help the culprits!
that Fritz 5.32 is freeware.

Ed Schröder is also claiming to offer old Dos programs Fritz 2 with permission of Chessbase.

I asked Chessbase but they claim that their old programs are not freeware and quote "Also: Nicht herunterladen."
which means, don't download it. Did Chessbase retract their permission?

Further with link to Franz Huber, Ed Schröder is linking to a qemu image with multiple old Dos chess engines.
[Moderation] Same here.

My guess is, that this is also happening without the authors consent. Can someone please shed some light
into this matter. I tried contacting Mr. Ed Schröder and Mr. Franz Huber, but so far no success. Thanks

[Vinvin]

They are what one can call "abandonware" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abandonware

They are not being sold anymore.
If users has to to buy it, nobody would buy it.
If it becomes freely available, a couple of hundreds people in the would enjoy it.

[karger]

Look out , It's the Chess Police. ..

[Alexander Schmidt]

Look out , It's the Chess Police. ..

It's a shame that nowadays one even gets attacked when claiming copyright issues. Many nice Chess-Projects died because programmers where upset by people who don't respect the copyright. Seems like you are one of those people who are responsible for the end of Yace, Fruit, Stobor, Capture and lots of others.

[karger]

I had no idea I was so POWERFUL

[Graham Banks]

I had no idea I was so POWERFUL

[pozzo-balbi]

Dear moderation, Ed Schröder https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Schr%C3%B6der is hopefully someone who does not need any introduction - at least in this forum.

He posted this for Fritz 5.32

and this for Fritz 1


On the other hand, chessbase wrote:



Sadly, besides chessbase, nobody answered my contact requests. That's why I am trying to investigate with the help of the members of this forum.

We are now having two opposite claims. Ed Schröder is claiming to have permission to give old chessbase product away for free and Mr. Stark from ChessBase is claiming otherwise.

It looks to me that "Moderation" took as granted, what was yet to be proven or disproven, a copyright violation by Mr. Ed Schröder.

I can very well imagine an encounter like this, e.g. Mr. Ed Schörder asked Mr. Matthias Wüllenweber.
E: Hi how are you doing?
M: Fine, thanks and yourself?
E: Fine, thanks. I have a website and I collect chess program pearls. Would you mind, if I put Fritz 1 there?
M: Sure, nice idea. Send me the link once done.
E. Sure. [..]

A simple oral agreement in a conversation like this would have made e.g. Fritz 1 de facto freeware. Sure only Mr. Ed Schröder would be allowed to distribute it for free. So any input to clarify this contradiction is highly welcome.

Further, it was asked in the past, if Fritz 5 engine can be called free and the consensus was, it is since it was available in many free chessbase products. See http://talkchess.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?t=14515 . Links in that thread were not a problem and still work using archive.org.


PS. I don't think that Mr. Ed Schröder is offering those products, because he thinks they are abandonware. He is claiming permission from chessbase! Abandonware is offering something against the will of the copyright holder, but the copyright holder not pursuing the copyright violation.

[karger]

Good job , Detective . The chess world will sleep better tonight knowing you are on the case ...

[Alexander Schmidt]

I had no idea I was so POWERFUL

Even a bigger shame, that old warhorses here find this amusing. You spent so much time with freeware and open source engines, and you crap at the copyrights.

Thanks to the mods for removing the link and thanks to pozzo for pointing out the issue.

[karger]

Waah waah