On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Craig Sanders wrote: [...] > > you can re-license public domain stuff as there is no copyright, i.e. > there is NOTHING which prevents you from doing so. >
[....] > > there is no copyright or license for public domain stuff. you can do > *anything* you want with it. You can do anything you want. However, you cannot 'license' it. You can sell it, of course. However, you cannot stop someone else from copying it. There are two major reasons that it might be illegal to copy something: 1) You are violating someone's copyright; 2) You have signed a contract stating that you will not do it. If I take something which is 'in the public domain', and give it to you, saying 'this is GPL'ed', then I cannot stop you copying it. If you copy it, you certainly haven't violated my copyright - since I don't have the copyright. You have potentially violated the copyright of the original owner - but he has given you permission to do anything at all with it. I am fairly sure that you will also find that the phrase 'in the public domain', whilst having a fairly common popular usage, doesn't have any precise legal definition. I believe it is normally interpreted, more or less, as 'you may copy at will'. Jules /----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------\ | Jelibean aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | 6 Evelyn Rd | | Jules aka | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Richmond, Surrey | | Julian Bean | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | TW9 2TF *UK* | +----------------+-------------------------------+---------------------+ | War doesn't demonstrate who's right... just who's left. | | When privacy is outlawed... only the outlaws have privacy. | \----------------------------------------------------------------------/
