@ Gojirax
Because it would be SOMEBODY'S job to find them.
Unless the mods here at AO have superhuman abilities, they'll hit the same snags as everyone else who's tried to find authors of old shareware, if they even have the time to do so.
As it stands it's NOBODY'S job, therefore it won't get done.
I think open discussion among users (like we're doing now) is probably the best way to find these authors. But yes, I think AO would be a reliable and trustworthy source to sell the programs once they've been found.
Although I thought that was what SASG was supposed to do?
I think SASG's concept was a little different - more to help shareware authors package and polish their work to become a more finished product (at least Stefan Stuntz is still around to answer this question :-)). Now we're talking about getting desperately needed utilities available again in any (non-crippleware) capacity.