[rescue] MacOS version 8.6

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Mon, 12 Aug 2002, Joshua D Boyd wrote:

> > Of course, you will have to wait what, 17 years?
>
> Err, first copyright laws do not expire ever.  Copyrights do expire
> though.  17 years is for patents (and that is with the extension I
> believe).  I don't remeber what copyrights are exactly.  But at a
> minimum for stuff owned by individuals rather than corporations, the
> term is at least life of the individual, without even having to register
> the copyright.

http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

According to that URL, copyrights on things created by individuals
nowadays expire 70 years after the death of the creator.

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/eldredvreno/nyt32898.html

According to this one, copyrights on things created by corporations expire
after 75 years, unless the Senate approves the Bono act, in which case
they will expire after 95 years.

So, the chances of any of us getting our hands on a public-domain copy of
Windows 98 are slim-to-none, unless the "original publication date" (as in
the example of Mickey Mouse) dates back to DOS or CP/M, in which case some
of us will merely be incontinent vegetables wishing that Social Security
hadn't gone bankrupt, but not dead and buried.

Silly query:  If one were to travel to the future and obtain all sorts of
goodies in public domain and then return with them, would they be
contraband?  They'd be obtained legally, but would be under copyright
protection upon return.  Hmm...  Sounds like a Star Trek Voyager scenario
in which the MPAA revokes "The Doctor" from the Federation under an
obscure copyright law during a trip back to the 21st century, leaving them
with only tritanium splints, rubbing synthahol, and the machine that goes
"Ping!".

-- 
Jonathan Patschke
   > Can you SysAdmins tell me what might go on in a typical day?
   Hours of endless frustration punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
                                 --Saul Tannenbaum (in the Monastery)