On January 27, 2007 12:11:21 PM +1100 Paul TBBle Hampson <Paul.Hampson@Pobox.com> wrote:
On Fri, Jan 26, 2007 at 04:53:17PM -0800, Frank Cusack wrote:
On January 27, 2007 11:50:38 AM +1100 Paul TBBle Hampson <Paul.Hampson@Pobox.com> wrote:
(It's been brought to my attention since that you can't actually choose to put things in the public domain in the US anymore,
Oh?
So I'm told, anyway. I'm not in the US, so I haven't researched this too hard, but it seems that since copyright in the US became automatic, the only way something goes into the public domain is to have copyright expire.
Copyright has been automatic for a long time. You just put things into the public domain by relinquishing the copyright (at time of authorship or later). There was a recent legal attempt to make copyright opt-in, which was rejected. I think there was also something to do with abandonware which was also rejected, but I might misremember that bit. Well, could be wrong on the first bit also. :-) -frank