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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • It depends on the type of work. The proper length of copyright for books or films should long, about 20 to 25 years, because they remain relevant for longer. But software should be shorter, about 7 years.

    The purpose of copyright is to enhance the public domain, not to create a business model. How well is 75 year old software enhancing the public domain? If any software has even entered the public domain through copyright expiration, what use is that software today? At best it’s an archeological curiosity, but more likely it’s no use at all.








  • I’ve had to use these before, when I lived in a dormitory that had frequent false fire alarms. The fire exit stairs took us to a series of one-way locking doors, ending with a “Do not exit, alarm will sound” door. At that point, even if we felt like it might be a false alarm, we had no choice but to go through the door. The first several times, it set off a weak alarm, but did not appear to be wired into anything else in the building. After a few times, it stopped going off, I assume because its battery died. It’s nobody’s job to replace those batteries, so they stay dead.