Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!rex!ukma!gatech!purdue!decwrl!shelby!polya!gilham From: gilham@polya.Stanford.EDU (Fred Gilham) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: PD Disks Keywords: PD Disks, Money Message-ID: <8687@polya.Stanford.EDU> Date: 21 Apr 89 20:50:11 GMT References: <38833@bbn.COM> <99856@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> <38944@bbn.COM> <6886@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> Sender: Fred Gilham Reply-To: gilham@polya.Stanford.EDU (Fred Gilham) Organization: Stanford University Lines: 32 In article <6886@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> jbwaters@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (J. Brian Waters) writes: > >By whose definition? Yours I take it. The legal one does not say anything >about someone not being able to make a profit from PD stuff. If something is >in the public domain you are free to do whatever you want with it. > This issue discussed before, when someone was selling copies of HACK. I think we need to remember that there is a difference between 1) PD software 2) Freely redistributable software that is copywrited The latter is copywrited, and often there are specific statements in the copywrite message that nobody can make any money off the distribution (except perhaps the author). If people are making a profit off the distribution of this kind of software, they are violating the spirit of the copywrite the author has placed on the software. Note that many authors do this because of a philosophical position -- "help stamp out software hoarding". I think that if people are gouging on distributing freely distributable software, this fact should be made known. Those whose copywrite is being infringed can take whatever action they feel is appropriate; the rest of us can avoid the sellers and make alternate sources known. On the other hand, public domain is public domain, and if people want to retain rights to their software they should not place it in the public domain. 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