"amicus_curious" <[email protected]> writes: >> The companies misappropriating GPL software are thus causing a lot of >> time and effort to be expended. If they respected the copyrights of >> software authors, all of this discussion would be unnecesary. >> >Or if the authors weren't such egomaniacs, they could just ignore the >situation and be happy that someone else thought enough of their creation to >use it themselves.
I sort of agree with you. If copyright owners were more willing to freely give away their work, life would be so much easier for all of us. Unlimited music downloads at no charge. Copy any software of your choice, no licensing, no cost, no copy protection. Make unlimited copies of movies and share with others. Copy any appeals court opinion and freely share with others, without worrying about copyrighted page numbers. And so on. It would be great for users. And, in this ideal world that you wish for, copyright owners would be happy that "someone else thought enough of their creation to use it", as you so eloquently stated it. But a lot of authors would then not create so many creative works. So what we have now is a compromise. Copyright law gives copyright owners the right to allow copying and distribution of their software on their own terms. It's not always convenient to abide by these terms, but we do end up with more creative works available. So your point of view, though very idealistic, has some validity. But your point of view is not mainstream today. However, there is something to be said for a shorter copyright term. Today's long copyright terms err in favor of coypright owners, some say because Disney wanted it that way. I think a coypright term of about 15 years for non-computer literary works, and perhaps 5 years for computer software, would be ideal. So I think we can both agree that copyright today goes too far. -- Rahul http://rahul.rahul.net/ _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
