Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
Of course, we could have 100 years from date of release for that sort of content.
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Or 50, or zero. If a publisher or author doesn't object. Copyright violation isn't the same as theft. Suspicion of theft results in criminal prosecution. In most countries the copyright owner, or the company assigned publishing rights, has to sue. They have to prove they have the copyright and that copies have been distributed without permission. They have to mount a civil case (sue) in most countries. Then for compensation they have to prove the losses. Hard if they aren't selling it. So compensation on winning a copyright case can vary from 0 to 100,000s of times the tariff in a conviction for theft of a BluRay disk. That's why in Ireland the cable and satellite Pay TV operators don't want the Garda to prosecute (Theft of Service is maybe maximum of €6000 and/or 6 months prison). They take a civil case and may recover €100,000. The State gets the money in a criminal case apart from value of physical stolen goods compensation.
There is software (abandonware) distributed free because the companies are gone. The other extreme is trolls like SCO (who have/had no connection to the original Santa Cruse Organisation) trying to claim they have the copyright on stuff that's "free". Neither BSD or Linux are actually AT&T / Bell UNIX and even the original SCO nor Microsoft (who amazingly did sell Xenix) ever had copyright to all of Xenix.
It copyrights or trademark or registered designs (USA= design patents) is not claimed/enforced, then the material becomes public domain. Actual patents can expire quicker. There is only copyright on "Trade secrets" and hard to enforce if it's secret. See Marmite, HP sauce, Coca-Cola, KFC seasoning.