Re: Abandoning property (Was: Copyright Extension Bill Passes Congress)

On 11/12/98, Kerry L. Konrad <k_konrad[_at_]stblaw.com> wrote:
>
> As for the point that programs lose their value in a few months, if
> that were so, why do we have the Y2K problem?

This has far less to do with copyright law, and far more to do with the logistics and "lock in" effects of complex computer systems. It also pertains an area of software which is far removed from the usual shrinkwrap and mass-market commonly associated with copyright issues.

Y2K concerns typically internal systems, often home-grown or significantly customized by in-house or hired consultants. The finished product is rarely itself offered for sale -- these are one-offs. Yes, portions of the code might be years or decades old, but the system itself is under constant revision.

The lock-in occurs as an interaction of any given program, data, and other programs within the system. Correcting the Y2K problem (by storing years as 4 digits rather than 2) requires modifying both the program dealing with the data, the data itself, and other programs interacting with the given program and data. It becomes a rather complex web.

Even if any one part of the system is composed of parts far newer than the total age of the system -- programs, say, are re-written over a period of five years, data latency is a maximum of two years -- the fact that the upgrade is a gradual process and not a landmark event means that there is never a clean breakpoint at which the entire system can be flushed.

The phenomenon of lock-in is treated very well by Shapiro and Varian, see for example

http://www.inforules.com/examples.htm
http://www.inforules.com/summaries.htm
http://www.inforules.com/powerpt/lockin2.pdf
http://www.thestandard.com/articles/opinion_display/0,1266,2173,00.html?home.of

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