Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uwmcsd1!leah!itsgw!batcomputer!sun2.ece.clarkson.edu!nelson
From: nelson@sun2.ece.clarkson.edu (Russ Nelson)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: What is a Public Domain SW ?
Message-ID: <554@sun2.ece.clarkson.edu>
Date: 15 Mar 88 13:32:29 GMT
References: <10361@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>
Reply-To: nelson@sun2.ece.clarkson.edu.UUCP (Russ Nelson)
Organization: Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY
Lines: 24
Keywords: Public Domain Software
Summary: Taxonomy of Software

In article <10361@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> basuki@CS.UCLA.EDU (Basuki Soetarman) writes:
>...about Public Domain Software

I'm trying to push the term "Freely Copyable" to reduce the misuse of the term
"Public Domain", which has a legal definition.  Most so-called Public Domain
software is really Freely Copyable.

Copyrighted		Cannot be legally be given away.  This includes
			software that can only be run on a single cpu, and
			software with a "book" copyright like Borland's, i.e.
			can only have one copy running at a time.
Freely copyable		Can be given away.  This includes PD software, software
			with a copyright of varying degrees of restriction,
			shareware, demos, etc.
Public Domain		No copyright at all.  You can do anything that you wish
			with this software, including sell it for kilobucks.
			As per the recent discussions on the net, it's best to
			have a statment in the program to this effect, as
			various countries copyright conventions differ as to
			protection of uncopyrighted software.
-- 
-russ
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