Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!sun-arpa!male!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: PD Disks
Keywords: PD Disks, Money
Message-ID: <100498@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 22 Apr 89 00:28:01 GMT
References: <38833@bbn.COM> <99856@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <38944@bbn.COM> <6886@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> <8687@polya.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 20

In article <8687@polya.Stanford.EDU> (Fred Gilham) writes:
>By the way, I often see things like "This software is public domain except
>it cannot be sold for profit", with or without an accompanying copyright
>notice.  Is this legally meaningful?
>-Fred Gilham

Yes and no, Yes by legal definition the software now has no restrictions
on it. The author's subsequent comment about selling it for profit has
no meaning. People *please* if you want to retain any rights at all, 
never ever say "Public domain" in relationship to your program on the
disk or anywhere, use "Freely redistributable" or "freely licensed" 
which don't invalidate your copyright. The quote that Fred supplies
is similar to "I murdered the victim, but it was only manslaughter." 
You can't have it both ways. And there is no reason to put something
in the public domain so that it can be given away. 

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"A most excellent barbarian ... Genghis Kahn!"