Comment Re:Shorter copyright (Score 1) 480
If the source code is never published, then the source never needs to go into the public domain at all. Once the GPL becomes unenforceable, then there is nothing there to force you to publish your source code. So:
1) Emacs vXX is released in 2014.
2) Copyright expires in 2019 and it goes into public domain.
3) Company downloads vXX as public domain code and makes a sells a source program based on it.
4) In 2024, the Company's binaries become public domain, but since it never released source, its improvements never do.
So, in summary, while the binaries will eventually be public domain, this does not replace the GPL's current function of forcing the sharing of source.... the Company's source code improvements to emacs can be kept private forever.