gnu@hoptoad.UUCP (02/07/87)
[Discussion is hereby moved to news.software.b from comp.os.minix.] In article <1717@hoptoad.uucp> I write: > Since netnews runs on 11's, it can be ported to Minix. Note that all the > netnews software is public domain already (even though recent versions > have an invalid copyright notice by Rick Adams: the software was written > by many people and contributed by them to the public domain). In article <43093@beno.seismo.CSS.GOV>, rick@seismo.CSS.GOV (Rick Adams) writes: > The copyright notice IS valid. One of the things you can do with public > domain software is stick your copyright notice on it. The point of my adding > the copyright notice is to keep someone from doing the same thing and trying > to sell it as theirs. > > Public domain means that anyone can do anything with it. That includes selling > it, claiming they wrote it, etc. But since the software is actually public domain, Rick's copyright holds no force. Anyone can do anything with it, including remove the copyright notice, or insert their own. A copyright is not a bunch of words, it's the ownership of some information. If Rick doesn't own netnews, then his notice in the source claiming to own it is just a bunch of empty words. It doesn't "keep someone from doing the same thing and trying to sell it as theirs". It just complicates the legal situation around people making legitimate use of netnews, since the words that come with it don't accurately describe the legal status of the code. Now it *is* possible to copyright an "arrangement" or "collection" of public domain information; e.g. a telephone book is copyrighted this way, since they don't own the names and addresses -- just the arrangement. Rick could be claiming to own the arrangement of the 2.11 netnews release, while the public owns the individual pieces of code, but again this strikes me as needlessly cumbersome and inappropriate. We've had enough trouble with people sticking "this is public domain" notices on Unix sources and such -- let's not stick "this is copyright" notices on PD stuff either. Especially PD stuff that so many people from our own community have labored over. -- John Gilmore {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@ingres.berkeley.edu Love your country but never trust its government. -- from a hand-painted road sign in central Pennsylvania (terrorist, cryptography, DES, drugs, cipher, secret, decode, NSA, CIA, NRO.)