[POLITICS] Re: When is the Last Time You Booted to Windows?

[Joel Rees]

On 2006.2.21, at 11:47 PM, Mike McCarty wrote:

>>> Eh? GPL restricts redistribution.
>> Only conditionally. Putting something under public domain means that
>> people can take that software and republish it under proprietary 
>> terms.
>
> No, it does not. Something which is placed into the public domain is
> public.

In what sense?

>  It does not allow anyone to take ownership of it.

Unfortunately, this is not quite true.

> The wheel
> is, for example, public domain.

Well, the idea of a wheel is.

>  It cannot be patented.

It cannot be patented because it is obvious, not because previous 
patents have lapsed into the public domain. I'm not sure why I'm 
pointing this out, except to emphasize the necessity of being precise.

>  Likewise,
> something which is public domain cannot be copyright,

But the performance, expression, and even the reprinting in a different 
layout of something which is in the public domain can, indeed, be 
placed under copyright.

>  nor can it be
> trade secret. It can be sold, but it cannot be owned.

I have a piece of software which I placed in the public domain. Or, 
rather, I used to have it. I still have copies of it lying around. But 
it is not mine. If someone were to claim copyright on it, I would have 
to fight his claims as a member of the public receiving damage, not as 
the owner. If I were to try to put my copyright back on it, said 
someone could fight my claims on exactly the same standing.

This particular piece of software was a fairly close translation from 
one assembly language and run-time architecture to another of another 
item of PD software. If the original had been licensed under a BSD 
class license, I'd have legally been required to specify the 
derivation, and it would have been under two copyrights. But it was PD, 
so the only reason I had to even acknowledge that it was derived was 
that I know that you get what you give. I could easily have claimed 
copyright, and, if I had chosen to abuse my claim, I could have caused 
trouble for other implementors in courts, just because suits are 
expensive.

So, yeah, in an ideal sense, you're right. Public Domain can't be 
legally be claimed by someone else. In a practical sense, it is not 
protected from such claims to the same degree as copyrighted works are.

I've got to hit the hay, or I'm going to catch your cold.