🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <6uqc2e$qck$1@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>
           fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk "Donal K. Fellows" writes:
> The question remains whether software (which often has a fairly short
> useful lifespan) should have the same IP rights and restrictions
> associcated with it as a fiction book or a play (which typically has a
> much longer useful lifespan - people are still reading King Lear and
> the Odyssey.)

My personal opinion is that copyright on software should be 10
years, on books it should be 25 years. 

Also, no-one should be allowed to one ways of making products 
interface to other products or to people, IOW such things as APIs, 
GUIs, the RS232 port, etc should not be copyrightable or patentable.
Also I think EU law should state that any entity that claims own
such things anywhere in the world should have all its IP put into
the public domain within the EU.

> How many copies of Windows98 do you think will still be
> in use and supported in 2008, and that is a major software product?

None. How many copies of Linux will be in use in 2008? Lots, because
Linux doesn't get out of date so fast. This is partly because 
Microsoft deliberately produce new, incompatible versions of 
everything every few years, to force people to spend lots of money 
upgrading, and partly because Linux is open source, so if something
(eg a device driver) becomes outdated ,anyone can fix it.


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@@--Phil Hunt-----------------------------Don't fear the penguins(*)--@@ 
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@@  hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; note also  @@
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