karl@grebyn.COM (Karl A. Nyberg) (04/19/88)
[CanAda - programming subset only used in the country North of the U. S. :-)] One of the other problems with the acceptance of Ada into the mainstream of programming and software development - so many of the individuals involved in the area are ignorant of related issues. We're all so new to this business of being in business - we're making our mistakes in the open, instead of hidden in companies that would otherwise shelter us from making fools of ourselves... > First, for those of you who picked up the two-page flyer on Ada Can at > the Phoenix meeting: check the "Rules of the Contest" on the back > page. The next to the last rule says, in part: "Entries become the > property of EVB Software Engineering for publication WITHOUT > COPYRIGHT." The intent of this rule is to alert entrants to the fact > that their submissions may very well be published. However, neither > EVB nor the entrants can claim a restrictive copyright to the > material. Specifically, all winning entries, and up to 8 (eight) > additional entries for each problem, will be placed in the public > domain. Ed, Putting something in the public domain and making it the property of EVB Software Engineering are two different things. There is nothing preventing a copyright that allows publication without charge. Check out the GNU Copyright and General Public License - you can see them by typing C-H C-C (^H^C) inside GNU EMACS. If the material is public domain (or even copyrighted with appropriate permission to duplicate) there's nothing preventing EVB Software Engineering or Grebyn Corporation or anybody else from reproducing/publishing the material. However, if it has become the property of EVB Software Engineering, it would remain for EVB Software Engineering to provide an appropriate copyright and/or license to allow others to reproduce/publish, or otherwise prevent such reproduction/publication (or are you planning to charge for it and attempt to prevent others from doing so?). This is a wholly different situation. Let's take this offline, eh? We can play the game, "my lawyer can beat up your lawyer :-)" privately. -- Karl --