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Patents and Copyrights
I have a semi-serious, semi-rhetorical question:
Why are patents for a limited time, but copyrights are basically forever?
If I invented the perfect mousetrap and the world beat a path to my door, I would only have the exclusive rights to my design for 17(?) years before everybody else could copy it and sell cheap knockoffs.
If I wrote a song about the perfect mousetrap, I could collect royalties from anybody who performed it in public for the rest of my life, and then some.
Why are the various forms of intellectual property handled so differently? Is there some "logical" history or reasoning, or did the copyrights people just have better lawyers and lobbyists? It's not like all patents are so critical to humanity that they must be shared eventually, or all copyrights are the sole income the otherwise destitute artists.
And what about licenses?
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NC Gears (Newaygo County Geeks Engineering Awesome Robotic Solutions)
FRC 1918 (Competing at Standish and West MI in 2016)
FTC 6043 & 7911 (Competing at West MI and Allendale in 2015)
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To borrow a slogan from the last place KC Royals "It's Our Time" The curse will be broken! ;) - Alpha Beta [more] 
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