[Popegaf]

I'd go even one step further: EOL software and hardware should be forced to be open-hardware (at least open schematics) or opensource. If you're not willing to support a product anymore then it should not be possible for it to simply turn into a brick because you turned off a server.

This would either create a market where companies will sell the license to support old products to other companies, or old hardware and software would finally be able to be supported by the community. There wouldn't be a need to reverse engineer or develop stuff in a "clean room" for fear of litigation.

[shadilay]

I really like this idea. I know in the business world a lot of EOL products get spun off into companies that maintain support.

[vhgyu75e6u]

Sounds great until companies sell the license to maintenance as the last buck to squish from a product to a third party that will jack up the price just to keep the service running. Better to either force an open source/schematics approach and let the community keep it, or force to sell a certain number of licenses for maintenance.