I'd also like to suggest that there might be different categories of copyright with different periods. Why should computer programs get the same period as books? Also definite exclusions, like data and code fragments.
I like the idea of attaching patents to a single person for their life. An author or musician would retain copyrights for their lifetime. Joint works would have shared copyrights with all parties having equal rights. Works owned by corporations should have a limited copyright term like 10 or 15 years. Maybe less if you adopt the idea for different categories. If an individual sells their copyright, then the copyright is only valid for the new owner for the term based on the category it falls into.
I don't believe process and use patents should be allowed. They stifle the natural course of scientific discovery. Software patents are really process patents. I believe software belongs in the copyright category. Most software patents are really process patents at their core.Finally, software patents are just plain evil, as are use patents, process patents, and medical technique patents. Oh, and anything, SW, device, etc, developed on the public buck should be open source as a matter of law.
All contracts I have worked on with government require that source code, and rights to modify as final deliverables for the software. It isn't FOSS, but the government doesn't get locked into a single shop then. It wouldn't be a huge step to require agencies to justify not releasing the software into the public domain once completed in the form of source code, and it would be the right thing to do, but politically it would take more interest. Some agencies do regularly participate in FOSS projects, and even support their own. NASA and NIST are two of the more significant ones, but the military also has done a lot in this area( at least in providing mirrors for FOSS projects )
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"Yeah, but we're making great time!" -- In reply to "Hey Yogi, I think we're lost."
--Yogi Bera
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