Robert_Charlton - 8:15 am on May 9, 2012 (gmt 0)

Software copyrights are another troubling aspect of this issue. The current lawsuit between Oracle and Google is worth noting as an example of the potential for far reaching effects this kind of litigation can have. See this thread, which is just getting past Google-bashing and into exploring those effects....

http://www.webmasterworld.com/goog/4450634.htm [webmasterworld.com]

From the Wired article [wired.com...] I cite in the thread...

One thing that makes the issue particularly troubling for open source projects is the extremely long shelf life of copyrights, Samuels says. Patents expire after less than 20 years, but copyright would protect the Amazon APIs for 95 years from the date they were first published, she says. "Copyright lasts a hell of a lot longer than patent protection."