[linuxhansl]

Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Fuck software patents... Absolutely. Copyright... Not so much. That is actually useful. Open source and free software would not work without copyright law. Copyright only triggers when you copy somebody else's work, I.e. a specific expression of an idea. Patents trigger when you merely happen to have the same idea.

[JoshTriplett]

> Copyright... Not so much. That is actually useful. Open source and free software would not work without copyright law.

Not true at all. Copyleft licenses as currently written wouldn't work without copyright law; all-permissive licenses like MIT and BSD would become the default state. I'll happily take that trade, and several folks at the FSF and other FOSS organizations are on record saying the same.

[linuxhansl]

I am not a lawyer, but even even MIT/BSD licenses only work because of copyright granting the originators the right to release under any license and restrict certain things, such as liability, usage of the originators name, etc.

[serge2k]

Except that the current system of enforcement is broken and the current length of copyright is ridiculous.