Do source-code copyright and licences etc. expire after 70 years andgo into the public domain?

[John Reye]

I was just wandering:
Is all source code guaranteed to become public domain?
Does this mean we'll eventually have the source-code of all
proprietary software?

For example such classic programs as:
* the Bell Labs C compiler (by Ritchies et al.)
* the Bell Labs Unix-Code
etc.
?

 

[Philipp Klaus Krause]

I was just wandering:
Is all source code guaranteed to become public domain?
Does this mean we'll eventually have the source-code of all
proprietary software?

For example such classic programs as:
* the Bell Labs C compiler (by Ritchies et al.)
* the Bell Labs Unix-Code
etc.
?

1) Assuming laws never change again, source code falls into the public
domain 70 years after the death of the author in many juridictions.

2) Laws are abitrary, and it doesn't make sense to rely on them not to
change for a long time. Historically, laws have been changed to ensure
that works do not fall into the public domain (and in some jurisdictions
works have been taken out of the public domain and given to the heirs of
the author) by extending the duration to the current 70 years.

3) This is OT for comp.lang.c

Philipp

 

[Keith Thompson]

I was just wandering:
Is all source code guaranteed to become public domain?
Does this mean we'll eventually have the source-code of all
proprietary software?

For example such classic programs as:
* the Bell Labs C compiler (by Ritchies et al.)
* the Bell Labs Unix-Code
etc.
?

This really isn't a C question. There's a misc.int-property newsgroup
that discusses intellectual property.

 

[Paul N]

1) Assuming  laws never change again, source code falls into the public
domain 70 years after the death of the author in many juridictions.

Which means that, if software companies are going to take proper care
of what is probably their biggest assets, they ought to be keeping
track of who wrote what and also whether said authors are still alive.
Of course, as it won't be a problem until at least 70 years after the
program is written, they may decide not to bother about it yet.
Interesting times could loom in about 70 years time...

Incidentally, this all relates to whether you're allowed to copy the
source and/or object code. If the source code is kept secret you still
may never get to see it, but for physical reasons rather than legal
ones.

2) Laws are abitrary, and it doesn't make sense to rely on them not to
change for a long time. Historically, laws have been changed to ensure
that works do not fall into the public domain (and in some jurisdictions
works have been taken out of the public domain and given to the heirs of
the author) by extending the duration to the current 70 years.

In the UK, the period was set to be 50 years after death in the CDP
Act 1988. (Not sure what it was before then, sorry - it might have
been the same.) But since then it has been changed to 70 years after
death. If it keeps changing at this rate it might never come out of
copyright.

3) This is OT for comp.lang.c

Yes.