Stallman Says Pirate Party Hurts Free Software

bonch writes "Richard Stallman has written an article on the GNU Web site describing the effect the Swedish Pirate Party's platform would have on the free software movement. While he supports general changes to copyright law, he makes a point that many anti-copyright proponents don't realize — the GPL itself is a copyright license that relies on copyright law to protect access to source code. According to Stallman, the Pirate Party's proposal of a five-year limit on copyright would remove the freedom users have to gain access to source code by eventually allowing its inclusion in proprietary products. Stallman suggests requiring proprietary software to also release its code within five years to even the balance of power."

Comments

Re:Stallman hurts free software

[Enderandrew]

I was commenting on Stallman in general. Above, I remark how I agree with him about the Pirate Party on this particular issue.

Re:Anyone Give A Shit What That Clown Says? Anyone

[Evil Shabazz]

50 years? While I can possibly see argument (agreement aside) for a 50 year window on copyrighted creative works like Mickey Mouse, I definitely cannot see 50 years as an acceptable window for copyright protection of code. That would mean it would only now allow us to open and use code written in 1949. Personally - I would suggest that copyright protection would be acceptable for "twice as long as it took you to create it, all told" - if you spent 3 years from concept/analysis to final product, then you get 6 years of profit protection for your effort. If it only took you 2 months to come up with, you only get 4 months protection. Of course, that's nearly un-enforcable and way too complicated.