I get why developers of software from defunct companies might not be comfortable with releasing their old software. If not purchasable, it is still by and large intellectual property. The solutions are simple once you finally arrive at them, but getting there is the part that is actually difficult and these folks did that hard work long ago.

Whether or not the rest of the world has moved on, the first person to arrive at the realization that one and one equals two probably found it a challenge to finally prove and adapt as an idea into something productive. I'm not sure I want to spend the rest of my life paying for that idea and legwork, but I do appreciate that it was the basis for a whole number of logical functions that I use daily and I don't just want to take that idea without providing its progenitor with the appropriate compensation, and for some that may be as simple as a thank you.

I like to hear that older software has been released from consumer limbo, personally I have gotten in touch with Ray Dunakin to see what he thought about me distributing and playing his world builder games, and he was pretty cool with it (but imo he's a pretty cool dude anyhow). I will continue to email developers when I can and tell them how much their old software means to me, maybe small gestures like that will help? Newbie naivety?

I was sitting at my desk last night downloading some old 3d software I used to covet, I would read the reviews in MacAddict for some of this stuff and having it there in front of me for the first time was a really moving experience. The power of software to turn simple PPC into a window into an imaginary reality is incredible and without that software it's little more than a large biege paperweight.