-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Tuesday 2005-11-22 at 14:58 -0500, John Coldrick wrote:
On Tuesday 22 November 2005 14:09, Carlos E. R. wrote:
There are precedents: the copyrights do expire, classical music, for instance.
Sorry, I still don't think this applies to source code! You cannot pry source code from a programmer's hand(assuming they own it) in the name of public domain! I don't care how old it is. If it's locked up somewhere,
I didn't say I can. I said that if the law makers make the appropriate law with the appropriate warranties, then it could be done. It wouldn't matter much the author complaints then. And, if the software is protected by copyright, the copyright has an expiration date. It has happened already with the gif format.
it's private property.
Land is private property, but it can be (and is, in fact) expropriated in my country.
Again, I'm not counting special cases like national security, etc...we're talking about the right for me to claim that because "wordwrite" was written in 1980, I'm somehow entitled to get the source code. It just doesn't fly, IMHO.
I never said "me". Nor a private person, but the society, after proper litigation or whatever the law dictates. That means the government. - -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFDg4LotTMYHG2NR9URAkYwAJ9osQaveZvrwBrBL+5UoUK9yJ9/XgCfTAJX Okbsx4ZCWy9va0rWTKeTP9k= =HcqM -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----