What you are advocating is, actually, the very thing copyright law should do, were we to adhere to what the founders of the US intended. Old programs *should* be entering the public domain and "enriching the soil" as you put it. This should simply be normal and expected, not something which must be advocated and requested.

The founders DID NOT intend that copyright be a tool of corporations to lock information away for all time. They (particularly Jefferson who proposed copyright and patent be limited in term in the constitution) would be quite distressed to see how these MONOPOLY GRANTS (yes, they are monopolies, read Jefferson et al) are being abused and corrupted by corporations who are trying to create "intellectual property" by fiat and deception.

We should not have to "request" copyrighted material revert to the public domain. We should DEMAND it. We, the people, GRANT the monopoly of copyright, we can WITHDRAW it.

If there are going to be corporate copyrights (and I disagree with the very idea of a fictional entity having "rights" at all), then they should be severely limited in term and scope and should EXPIRE the moment said corporation goes out of business.

This would make "business" hard? Well, tough. I don't see "easy profit taking" in the Bill of Rights.

Mark K. Bilbo