re: #246 gamark

I don’t think longevity of value is (should be) the issue. The trade-off is between rewarding the creators for their works by granting them exclusive rights and promoting the public good by time-limiting those exclusive rights. The US Constitution clearly says “for a limited time”, not “until such time as the works are no longer of value”.

I agree that the software should enjoy protection by copyright, in some way, so that the investment of resources and talent in creating it can be rewarded. There was no intent in copyright law that the “reward” period should be “until such time as the works are no longer of value”, but that the public should subsequently benefit when that period is up. For software, however the value is gone long before that period is up.