There were actually extensive plans made for that very contingency. The speech (draft) was written for Nixon by William Safire. In my opinion, it is one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever seen:
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."
On the other hand, during an actual Dark Age, you're generally far more concerned with little things like food, shelter, keeping someone else from whacking you with a big stick in order to take your food and shelter. Deciphering 200 year old "tablets" is generally left to more enlightened ages, when we'd hope that they'd have figured out basic optics again.
It's not just copyright, either. I can't begin to guess how much software I haven't written due to employment agreements that basically say "whatever you write while in our employ is ours." So even if I were to write software that was completely unrelated to my company's business, and written completely on my own time, they'd own it. And better yet, if I suggested we build something, and they decided not to do so, if I built it on my own time, they'd still own it! So I didn't write stuff...and they didn't get any benefit from it. Of course, nobody else did, either.
The Law of Unintended Consequences holds true once more.
I have to disagree. Assuming that it isn't a "competitive advantage" (and we all know how vague that can be), most companies actually don't have a problem releasing their code back to the main branch, if only because it keeps them from having to re-integrate their changes every time there is a new release. And if they do consider something to be a competitive advantage, they'll generally create some form of hook, check that back in, and then use the hook to do their spiffy stuff.
Really, businesses care much more about the total cost of software, and not just the development cost. So if they save money (cost) by contributing, they will.
Slashdot Mirror
There were actually extensive plans made for that very contingency. The speech (draft) was written for Nixon by William Safire. In my opinion, it is one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever seen:
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."
On the other hand, during an actual Dark Age, you're generally far more concerned with little things like food, shelter, keeping someone else from whacking you with a big stick in order to take your food and shelter. Deciphering 200 year old "tablets" is generally left to more enlightened ages, when we'd hope that they'd have figured out basic optics again.
It's not just copyright, either. I can't begin to guess how much software I haven't written due to employment agreements that basically say "whatever you write while in our employ is ours." So even if I were to write software that was completely unrelated to my company's business, and written completely on my own time, they'd own it. And better yet, if I suggested we build something, and they decided not to do so, if I built it on my own time, they'd still own it! So I didn't write stuff...and they didn't get any benefit from it. Of course, nobody else did, either.
The Law of Unintended Consequences holds true once more.
I have to disagree. Assuming that it isn't a "competitive advantage" (and we all know how vague that can be), most companies actually don't have a problem releasing their code back to the main branch, if only because it keeps them from having to re-integrate their changes every time there is a new release. And if they do consider something to be a competitive advantage, they'll generally create some form of hook, check that back in, and then use the hook to do their spiffy stuff.
Really, businesses care much more about the total cost of software, and not just the development cost. So if they save money (cost) by contributing, they will.