On: EFF Wins Petition to Inspect and Modify Car Softwa...

[jxcl]

> This does not mean these titles can be redistributed, only that they can be modified for the sake of preservation.

But once the copyright expires on the disks, they may then be redistributed?

[VonGuard → jxcl]

Then they would enter public domain. Copyright, however, lasts a very, very long time. Longer than the history of computing.

[gknoy → VonGuard]

It sounds like archivists could image the disks and transport those across mediums, in the interest of archival, as long as they didn't distribute them, though. Am I mistaken?

[VonGuard → gknoy]

You are correct. We can now do just about anything we want short of redistribution or commercialization.

[jellicle → jxcl]

Nearly nothing has entered the public domain in the U.S. in decades, and likely nearly nothing ever will again.

[VonGuard → jellicle]

There was that time in the 70's when you had to re-up your Copyright, and a lot of stuff fell out, like Night of the Living Dead.

[wtallis → VonGuard]

Night of the Living Dead failed to ever have copyright protection due to lack of a copyright notice or registration, not from a need for renewal. Renewal became automatic in 1964, and registration or notice became optional in 1989. (And in 1976 it became possible to register for up to 5 years after publication, to allow for fixing mistakes like with Night of the Living Dead.)

[PeterisP → jxcl]

Theoretically yes, but I don't really expect to see copyright on any, even the oldest, software expiring during my lifetime.