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From: mcb@styx.UUCP ("Michael C. Berch")
Newsgroups: misc.legal
Subject: Re: BITNET mail follows (public domain software)
Message-ID: <8610150606.AA07249@lll-tis-b.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 15-Oct-86 02:06:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: lll-tis-.8610150606.AA07249
Posted: Wed Oct 15 02:06:51 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Oct-86 20:26:00 EDT
References: <8610141158.aa06719@SEM.BRL.ARPA>
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Organization: Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore CA
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>    Consider the alternative to the question you asked
>  what would happen if people were allowed to use PD software
> for public or corporate gain?   Would  it be fair for you to
> sell me  a copy of software  you got free from  PD?   Should
> REARS CO.  be allowed to develop  and sell packages based on
> PD software?  Ostensibly, the reason Joe Programmer made his
> software PD was that he wanted it to be available at no cost
> to anyone  who wanted  it.   Any  attempt to  sell it  would
> defeat Joe's intention, no?

I believe that many people do not understand the true meaning of
"public domain" with respect to intellectual properties. Under US
copyright law, the creator of an intellectual property is vested with
a "bundle of exclusive rights" that are defined by the copyright statute. 
These include, among other things, the right to make and sell copies,
control derivative works, and the right to license these privileges or
to assign the rights themselves. This applies to all works subject to
the copyright law, including literary works, sound recordings, motion
pictures, and computer software.

When the creator of a work publishes it with notice of copyright, the
bundle of exclusive rights is preserved, and he may parcel them out as
he wishes. But if he publishes it without a copyright notice, or
states that the work is in the public domain, the bundle of rights is
irrevocably lost. [Yeah, there are some exceptions to this, but
they're not important here.] This means that anyone may copy, sell, 
distribute, or otherwise exploit the work for commercial or personal gain, 
with just two exceptions:

1) You may not pass off the work as your own. This is based on fraud
law rather than copyright law.

2) You may not copyright the work in your own name. The copyright law
provides that only the creator of the work may do so.

Thus software authors wishing to retain any control over their
software after it leaves their hands must assert copyright rather than
placing their work in the public domain. It is perfectly reasonable to
place a copyright notice on a work and state that it is freely available;
it is not reasonable to state that a work is in the public domain and
attempt to place restrictions on dissemination.

Michael C. Berch
ARPA: mcb@lll-tis-b.ARPA (down temporarily)
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