On 13/02/12 12:45, Matt Giuca wrote:
Having a shorter copyright term, but keeping the long term for free software would mean that the above clause is no longer true. In this world, I would have certain freedoms with proprietary software that I would not have with GPL software. For example, I would be allowed to reverse engineer a 5-year-old proprietary program and incorporate it into my proprietary software, while the GPL software would still be under copyright and I could not do that. So the GPL would no longer be merely granting additional rights to the user; it would also be taking away some rights (the lapse into the public domain after a short period).
The goal of free software is freedom for people who *use* software. To claim that the ability to restrict other people with proprietary software is a "freedom" is twisted logic indeed. Secondly, you're welcome to "reverse engineer" GPL software any time without infringing copyright (assuming this means looking at the task the program performs and writing a new program that does a similar task). You may have infringed patent law though. This is another example why copyright and patent should be discussed separately. Regards, Ben