wild and possibly idiotic idea- what do you think?

The recent discussions about unsupported software led me to think about old O/Ss in general. It seems that possibly one of the reasons that companies are not releasing them is due to the amount of work involved in contacting all the other groups who licensed bits to the software (e.g. AT&T for UNIX) (I have no idea how these agreements were set up, so it might not be an issue, but . . .) Anyway, to the point- perhaps if some group were able to decide on a list of systems they really want to see available, and secure the permission of other interested parties, then we could see some of these older software available for free to hobbyest users (stuff like DOMAIN/OS/Aegis, older MCA AIX, IRIX). I know that in some cases (PERQ et al.) it will be difficult to figure out who to contact, but some we could just read of the copyright screen. Enough drivel, dumb idea or not? -Scott Quinn