Psion programs in infoseek

rwap · February 2011

Can you please let me have a look at the original permission from Psion to include their software for free download? I have contacted them recently about their QL titles and would love to be able to release these also.

Philip Kendall · February 2011

The permission will have been granted to WoS and WoS only, so I can't see why it would be useful to you.

mheide · February 2011

For what it's worth, Psion was one of the very first companies I asked permission to, some 15 years ago, as they had an office in Amsterdam.
At that time they didn't "do" email yet, so it was done by snailmail.
Sadly I lost the messages in one of my house moves or I would've typed them up for the archive. :-(

What the reply basically alluded to was that the company going by the name of Psion at that time was a very different company.
It was a merger of 3 companies, one of which was part of the Psion we know (who were the smallest of those 3 companies), but without any of the old copyrights.
I was informed that the old copyrights were left in an unknown status; they helpfully tried to find out what may have happened to them, but were unable to find any trace whatsoever.

It was suggested to search for the authors instead as they likely held the rights. Psion was said to be exceptionally unlikely to come knocking at any rate.

rwap · February 2011

OK thanks - it looks unlikely then that I would be able to get the rights for the QL software...

Matt_B · February 2011

You could try contacting TomTom, as Charles Davies now works for them apparently:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/28/psion-veteran-charles-davies-leaves-nokia-for-tomtom/

He was the man who wrote QL Archive and presumably the rights would have reverted to him.

I'm not sure where you'd start with the others though.

Philip Kendall · February 2011

Matt_B wrote: »

He was the man who wrote QL Archive and presumably the rights would have reverted to him.

On what basis do you presume that?

Matt_B · February 2011

Philip Kendall wrote: »

On what basis do you presume that?

It's from what Martijn wrote earlier; specifically "It was suggested to search for the authors instead as they likely held the rights." Certainly, if Psion themselves don't wish to lay a claim, an OK from the authors ought to suffice.

IANAL of course, but then again we're more after good will than legally binding contracts, aren't we?

zeropolis79 · February 2011

Never used any of their Speccy software, but their palmtop computers were excellent. Got two of them on my desk right now..

rwap · February 2011

Hmm - I wonder who wrote Psion Chess and Matchpoint?

mheide · February 2011

The author of Chess is still unknown (so do let us know if you find out!). Matchpoint was written by Steve Kelly, as listed. :-)

rwap · February 2011

I meant the QL versions :-)

Actually Psion's QL Chess was written by Richard Lang. No idea about the Spectrum version, although you could contact Richard to ask him if he wrote it...

His website is http://www.chessgenius.com/

Matt_B · February 2011

rwap wrote: »

I meant the QL versions :-)

Actually Psion's QL Chess was written by Richard Lang. No idea about the Spectrum version, although you could contact Richard to ask him if he wrote it...

His website is http://www.chessgenius.com/

Richard wrote Cyrus and Cyrus II for the Spectrum, which the QL program is based on.

Psion's Chess for the Spectrum and ZX81 was written by someone at Mikro Gen, although precisely who did it remains a mystery.

Psion programs in infoseek

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