Releasing old software into public domain. [LWN.net]

From:		Pavel Roskin <proski@gnu.org>
To:		gnu@gnu.org
Subject:		Releasing old software into public domain.
Date:		Thu, 5 Sep 2002 18:42:56 -0400 (EDT)
Cc:		letters@lwn.net

Hello!

Reading recent discussions in the online media, it is clear that many
people have an issue with the copyright laws that make copyrights remain
in force for many decades.

I believe that the Free Software Foundation should release into the public
domain all the software currently under GPL, that is at least 15 years
old, and for which FSF is the sole copyright holder.

GPL is a great license because it uses the copyright law to make software
free. However, 15 years should be enough for software to enjoy copyright
protection. Even when our goals are noble, we should not be using the
copyright law beyond the fair limit that we would like it to have.

In my opinion, FSF could make a good point by releasing its old software
into the public domain. That would be an example for other copyright
holders, even those who produce non-free software.

Possible damage to the free software would be negligible. I cannot
imagine software companies craving for Emacs or gcc sources from 1987.
In fact, I could not even find gcc that old on the GNU FTP site - the
oldest version is dated 1988.

You see, 15 years is like eternity for software. One cannot make money
from 15 years old software without twisting the law and doing immoral
things. I cannot imagine the Free Software Foundation suing somebody for
embedding 15 years old software into proprietary applications. Then let's
make it clear to everyone that we won't ever do it.

I really hope that FSF will use this opportunity to influence copyright
law and set a good precedent for other software copyright holders.

--
Best regards,
Pavel Roskin,
free software developer

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Releasing old software into public domain.

Posted Sep 12, 2002 9:43 UTC (Thu) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link]

That's a really good idea.

I would however suggest _five_ years rather than 15 - on the principle that software does age so fast.

Releasing old software into public domain.

Posted Sep 12, 2002 20:29 UTC (Thu) by xtifr (subscriber, #143) [Link]

As I understand it, the biggest problem with releasing code into the public domain in general is that you may not be able to disclaim warranty. This is the reason that a lot of people use BSD-style licenses, rather than releasing their code as public domain.

The next problem is that copyleft is intended as a form of ju-jitsu against copyright, using copyright's own strengths against it. If the older code were moved to the public domain, then it would lose this leverage. This might actually be somewhat counterproductive. It could be like laying down your arms while your enemy is still shooting at you.

Finally, the FSF might not be able to do this. While they own a lot of copyrights, they obtained most of those through agreements with developers, and those pre-existing agreements may include terms like, "the software will stay protected by the GPL for the length of its copyright." While I've never assigned anything to the FSF myself, so I haven't seen their standard copyright assignment contract, I know that I would have hesitated to assign copyright unless some such terms were present.

How would this help?

Posted Sep 12, 2002 21:32 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link]

What exactly is the benefit of doing this? This is the really real world, where people are pursuaded by many things, but zany and essentially meaningless gestures aren't among them. As you pointed out, no one wants fifteen year old emacs sources, so releasing them into the public domain serves no purpose -- especially since anyone is free to use and even to develop new free software based on them already.