Color MacCheese to be Public Domain
I've argued against copyright extensions many
times, recently stating that a copyright long enough for the vast majority of
works to gather 95% of their theoretical maximum revenue should be sufficient.
For most products, I think that would be 5 years or less, but I think the
original 17 year length of copyright would be a fair
compromise.
Timmer suggested I put my
money where my mouth is, and start releasing my old products to the public
domain. So we are. I'll need to get permission from the authors, but as I do,
we'll release our old software to the public domain, meaning people can do
whatever they like with them, including changing, reselling, updating, or
whatever strikes their fancy. We'll also post source code when available. (Our
archiving of some old products is sketchy, as it turns out -- can anybody read
SyQuest carts?)
Color MacCheese will be
our first. I'll post it to our web site, complete with source, donated free to
all humanity.
I do not expect our
revenue to be significantly affected.
Filed Wed - February 1, 2006, 10:52 AM in
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