Edited by author 08-21-2002 03:59 PM
I get the feeling that Dave and Doc got bent out of shape because the keynote speech pointed a finger back at the audience, and asked for action. I was taken aback, as everyone probably was. It was jarring yes, but truthful, and someone's got to say it: we're powerless in washington and we're doing nothing about it. We can only route around bad laws for so long before too many of us are in jail for it.

So Dave and Doc go off on software patents, as if that has anything at all to do with Napster, P2P, movie piracy, or music piracy. As if Napster and Kazaa would still be around and healthy if no one patented their software?

Now Dave's going half-cocked on protecting his work. First off, his software will be protected for at least 70 years, Larry is not the King and overlord of the USA. The laws aren't going to change much, even if Larry wins against Ashcroft in the fall.

Larry's ultimate vision is for limited runs of copyright, renewable for a fee. Dave certainly could keep his software copyrights for a substantial period of time if he wanted, but that's beside the point. The point is the chances that the US will adopt Larry's vision of copyright are a trillion to one. The entire Hollywood industry is pushing all their might against him to just lop 20 years off the copyright. We're not going to see a total rewrite of copyright law in our lifetime. My guess is that if anything changes from the 95 year copyright protection, it may go to 70 year, pre-Sonny Bono levels if it changes at all.

I guess I don't see the purpose of having a beef with someone's personal beliefs that will never become law.