Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!ucsd!sdcsvax!ucsdhub!hp-sdd!hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!dak
From: dak@uoregon.UUCP (David Alan Keldsen)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: MEAN18 AUTHOR REPLIES TO POSTING:
Message-ID: <1699@uoregon.UUCP>
Date: 16 Mar 88 06:09:59 GMT
References: <235400004@prism> <235400005@prism> <2963@pbhyf.UUCP>
Reply-To: dak@drizzle.UUCP (David Alan Keldsen)
Organization: University of Oregon, Computer Science, Eugene OR
Lines: 38

In article <2963@pbhyf.UUCP> che@pbhyf.UUCP (823-2454-Mitch Che) writes:
>In article <235400005@prism> john@prism.TMC.COM writes:
>>Oh, come on.  A copyright is a reliable indicator that a piece of software is 
>>copyrighted, and that is all you need to know, if you are thinking about 
>>copying it for public distribution.  Otherwise, what does a copyright notice 
>
>What?  Copyright and public distribution have nothing to do with each other.
>I can choose to distribute material that I have copyrighted in the public
>domain.  I do not have to give up "copyrights" (so to speak) to place
>something in the public domain.  If John is implying copyright has something
>to do with being purchased in a store or by mail order (and not being
>legally "copyable"), then there are a lot of authors of public domain
>and shared software who want to talk with John, 'cause they ain't about
>to give up their copyrights...
>-- 
>Mitch Che   Pacific Bell		 "Tape librarians will mount anything."
>---------------------------------------	  		Computerworld
>disclaimer, disclaimer, too   	 	 
>415-823-2454 uucp:ames!ptsfa!pbhyf!che   

Well, perhaps those authors *should* talk to John.  Public Domain is mutually
exclusive with Copyright.  Even a simple dictionary definition shows this:
"public domain (n).... 2.  The status of publications, products, and processes
that are not protected under patent or copyright."  (American Heritage dict.)

Copyrighted public domain software is an oxymoron.  In fact, the use of
"submitted to the public domain" is enough to eliminate your ability to
copyright the software in question, so all you "public domain" programmers
out there, take heed.

BTW, to pack two notices into one, I'd very much like to have this group
moderated again, so that garbage notices like this one don't appear in 
a .binaries group.  :-)

Dave (Dak) Keldsen
University of Oregon CIS graduate student...
These are my opinions only, not anyone else's, and should not be considered
legal advice or tax advice or even medical advice.  But you knew that, right?