[Sussex] RMS Talking at Sussex Uni

[Dominic Humphries]

> > I'm beginning to think he's trolling, TBH - he's had the point hammered
> > home repeatedly but he's still apparently unable to grasp it. 
> 
> You might be right, but I'm more inclined to think that he can't see
> beyond his own small, little box.

That's the conclusion I've come to too. I think I'll give up on
replying :o)

> You are right, much code would be out of copyright.  But that would
> apply evenly.  Lots and lots of propriety code would also enter the
> public domain.  How much easier would it be to interface with XP of that
> code as legally available?

It would certainly give Wine & ReactOS a boost!

> 1) Copyright would not be automatic.  All works would be in the public
> domain unless copyrighted.
Hmm.. I don't know.. that would potentially be a lot of work - what if
every blogger out there wanted their posts copyright and started
emailing them to the copyright office on publication?

It's ironic that there's a system that most people would be very happy
with WRT copyright that seems to be overlooked consistently:

 - Publish something, it's automatically copyright for a short time -
say five years.
 - After those five years, it either goes into public domain, or you
have to register it for copyright
 - Copyright can be renewed every five years for a small fee, with a
very high maximum limit - a hundred years or so
 - The small fee gets a little bigger with each renewal

That way, Disney could keep their precious Mickey Mouse films
copyrighted for a long, long time without having to keep buying changes
to the law; they don't force everything ELSE that gets copyrighted to be
unusable as well; and only works with a clearly-defined owner that are
valuable enough TO that owner to be worth the renewal fee would be
copyrighted.

Considering Disney has made so much money out of things that were in the
public domain, you'd think they could see the value in a system which
could keep their creations out of it but put more material into it..

> 2). Mandatory publication of copyrighted works at termination of copyright.
This one would be important for proprietary software - otherwise FOSS
would go public domain and people could use it, but proprietary would be
free to anyone who could get a copy.. but how would they get
MS/Apple/whoever to actually GIVE them such a copy?