Which industry? I think there are impedance issues with patents in the faddish Web 2.0 world, but they work fine in many other industries. E.g. In jet engines, where the life cycle of a design might be 30 years, "first to market" is almost irrelevant.

They don't last hundreds of years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_copyright_len...

Sure, they don't last hundreds of years. But the can easily last 100+ years. I'm not sure there is that much difference between 75, 100, or 250 years.

I'm very pro-copyright, and I think copyright lasts far too long.

Same here. I'd rather see copyright in the 15-20 year range with an optional extension that must be registered and paid for. Especially, copyrights held by corporations and not individuals.

"They don't last hundreds of years"

...yet.