[Coco] Re: Coco Digest, Vol 1, Issue 307

[farna at att.net]

The big problem with copyrights now is that they are way to long. 14 years is 
not enough for artistic works such as novels, which don't really go out of 
date, but I'd really like to see things like magazine articles and computer 
programs go back to the 14 year (or even a 10 year) limit. Things like that 
are pretty much out of date after five years, and support for items are gone 
way before the 10 year mark. Value to anyone but a few hobbyist is pretty 
much gone as well. The only exception might be proprietary code, but if the 
code is still in use (say the core code in an upgraded version) and being 
published it should continue to be covered because of the new releases. In 
this case it should probably read 10 years after publication ceases. Well, 
that would cover everything if it were 10 years after last publication. Then 
if a company wanted to extend their copyright, they could publish a 
compendium or something near the 10 year mark, which would cover the work for 
an additional 10 years. 

I think the big publishing companies worked the last copyright law deals. In 
many cases the long copyrights STIFFLE rather than promote progress. The same 
with patents. The original author/inventor rarely profits as much as big 
business from the long terms.

--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Independent 
Magazine" (AIM)
*Elite* publication for those 
interested in all 
aspects of AMC 
history,performance,restoration,etc
. 
(AMC,Rambler,Nash,Hudson,Jeep,etc.)
http:farna.home.att.net/AIM.html
(free download available!)