> What about mechanical devices that simply wear out? I think wear-and-tear from usage falls under "until broken by me", which I see as intended to cover ordin

> What about mechanical devices that simply wear out? I think wear-and-tear from usage falls under "until broken by me", which I see as intended to cover ordinary breakage that would exist even in absence of copyright and trade secrets. > Also, cool beans that that is the minimum you'll settle on but how on earth would anyone enforce that? A large part of the solution would be to stop enforcing copyright, patents, DMCA anti-circumvention clause, etc. in these cases. Companies can be legally compelled to release the server software with fines or restrictions on future sales for non-compliance. In case of bankruptcy, it can be obtained as part of the bankruptcy process going through the company's assets. > Open sourced software is not enough by far to make something work perpetually: the software will need to be run somewhere and most likely (since you are talking about some sort of net-connected software if this is relevant in the first place) will need security patching to keep up with CVEs. Some of these devices may legitimately need to be network-connected, but very few legitimately need to be Internet-connected. A local network with a Raspberry Pi running the server is likely fine in most cases. > Who is going to pay for that? I don't think it will be the bankrupt entity that stopped existing 10 years ago. I don't think the idea is to force someone to pay to keep servers up or actively maintain the software - but rather to remove artificial barriers in the way of owners/enthusiasts/repair-shops/etc. that already want to do so. Unless we're applying this retroactively, it'd be an entity currently going through bankruptcy, and their obligation is just the hand-over the source code in its current state.