HP 48 source OK to release?

[EdS2]

Not to be too morbid, but this is a good reason to set things up for your collected papers to go somewhere useful when you die.

Bob points out in that thread that it's better to ask forgiveness than permission, and I think it's been noted that the purpose of legal departments generally is to say no. They have no incentive to say yes.

It's possible that Joe will decide to share his papers during his lifetime, but it would be his choice, and he has said that he's constrained by an agreement. It would in my view be unfair to pressure him.

When one signs any contract or NDA, that's the time to strike out clauses or demand time limits - after agreeing, it's a bit late. Many things are, in fact, negotiable, but not many of us negotiate terms.

To anyone who has materials, I'd want to be sure they know about simply uploading to the Internet Archive, where the materials will be held, and most likely made available. It's easy enough to create an anonymised account, and very easy to upload. Should there be any complaint from a copyright holder, the IA has a process which can result in taking the material offline - presumably only for some number of years or decades. Eventually, if not in our lifetimes, the material will be available.