[copyleft-next] Limited-term copyleft

Kuno Woudt kuno at frob.nl
Thu Feb 14 05:53:51 UTC 2013


On 02/14/2013 04:40 AM, Richard Fontana wrote:
> Does anyone think the idea of a limited-term copyleft -- particularly
> given that copyleft-next is a software-oriented license -- is a
> good/bad idea?
>
> We're now a few years from the point where there could be 30-year-old
> code under GPL-like licenses. I have found from $DAYJOB experience
> that one occasionally has to deal with legal issues concerning
> *really* old code (in a situation I dealt with today, from 1979;
> admittedly that's unusual).
>
> The idea would be to have the copyleft terms disappear after some
> limited period far short of the statutory copyright term.

The only reason I can see for wanting this is to deal with copyleft 
license compatibility issues.  Which in my experience are not enough of 
a problem to weaken the copyleft nature of the work in this way.

-- kuno / warp.


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