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0 pointsporcoda4y ago0 comments

Seriously? Since when could you buy COTS and expect to get the code too? I don’t remember a source archive accompanying the pre-subscription Adobe, Microsoft, or any other major piece of software that is now subscription-ware. That’s pure fantasy.

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joshuaissac4y ago

> Since when could you buy COTS and expect to get the code too?

Since the 1950s and 1960s. IBM, for example, provided source code for their products until 1983.[1] The full Apple II source code was included in the Apple II Reference Manual;[2] similarly for the Atari 400/800 Technical Reference Notes.[3]

1. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hSBrPSYgjI4C&redir_esc=y (page 59)

2. https://archive.org/details/applerefjan78/page/n78/mode/2up

3. https://archive.org/details/CO16555AtariHomeComputerTechnica...

broeng4y ago

But back then, you were rarely paying for the software directly, you were paying for hardware.

ndiddy4y ago

If anyone is curious what happened in 1983, that’s the same year that Apple Computer Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. set the precedent that binary data is covered by copyright (before this case, only source code was covered).

doctor_eval4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer%2C_Inc._v._Fran....

ponow4y ago

I vaguely recall that you could get source code back in the 70s and early 80s, with early UNIX say or mainframe code, because the revenue was from the big machines. Technical reference manuals for the early IBM PC were awesome.

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