Charles Cooper and Dave Winer take Lawrence Lessig to task for the scandalous assertion that maybe copyright should only last a decade on software.

Dave goes so far to say that “[Lessig and friends have] got a gun to the head of my art and business.”

The thing that both of these commentators are missing is the fact that software, unlike books, is under constant revision. Do you really think, Dave, that the release of the source code to the 1992 version of Frontier is going to put your art or buisness out of it’s misery?

Charles Cooper talks about it enshrining the current powers that be. I can’t imagine how Microsoft being required to release the code it had in 1992 - windows 3.1 and DOS - would substantively affect the competitive landscape.

Copyright is for a given published work, not for all future versions of a work. I can’t believe they can’t see this basic point.