Can you abandon copyright?

[InfoNuovo at cs.com]

I think there might be a confusion in the use of language here.

It seems quite possible to abandon a copyright. However, that does not make
it available for anyone else to have.  Consider the case where a copyright
expires.  This puts the work in the public domain (ignoring the prospect of
some other form of protection).  It does not mean the work can be
appropriated and copyrighted by another.  It does mean that none of the
exclusive rights of the copyright holder any longer apply, and no one else
has them either.

Under current U.S. law, there is no longer any notice requirement and it is
difficult to simply lose a copyright.  However, one could take steps to
intentionally place a work in the public domain.  I think it would be very
difficult to recant and claim infringement thereafter.  I certainly wouldn't
want to try it.

I just read where the author's rights that do exist in current U.S. law are
viewed by some as distinct from copyright, and it would seem that they work
independently from abandonment of copyright.  They apparently don't apply to
literary works, including software, regardless.  Similar rights arise in
other parts of U.S. law and in common law, so it may not be an issue, except
with regard to international copyright arrangements.  I don't want to
minimize that, just suggest that abandoning the subdividable exclusive
rights that apply under pure copyright is possible in the United States.
Any creator's rights don't seem to interfere with that, and vice versa.  If
there is any doubt, an open license would be a clean alternative, since some
of these licenses do preserve author's rights as terms of the license.  (I'm
thinking of the requirement for preservation of the copyright notice and
requirement that derivatives be clearly differentiated and not ascribed to
the original copyright holder.)

Where I have been reading is in section 2.2, "What is 'public domain?'" in
Terry Carroll's FAQ on copyright.  This is consistent with what other
sources provide.  The last sentence is pretty clear, and Carroll speculates
what it probably takes to abandon copyright, now that omission of a
copyright notice is insufficient.  I have the sense that there has been no
legal test, but who would want to test it (and have standing), and would a
court be willing to hear it?  I have no idea.  It seems like too small a
matter.

Carroll, Terry.  Copyright Resource Page.  published on the web at

    http://www.aimnet.com/~carroll/copyright/faq-home.html.

1999 July 16.  Includes links to Carroll's extensive January 1994 6-part FAQ
on copyright, plus an addendum (1998 November 6).  This is entirely with
respect to U.S. Copyright law.

-- Dennis

------------------
Dennis E. Hamilton
InfoNuovo
mailto:infonuovo at email.com
tel. +1-206-779-9430 (gsm)
fax. +1-425-793-0283
http://www.infonuovo.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Angelo Schneider [mailto:angelo.schneider at xcc.de]
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 1999 07:10
To: Bruce Perens
Cc: iang at systemics.com; jmlb2 at hermes.cam.ac.uk;
license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: Can you alter the MIT license? (1)


Hi Bruce!
Hi all!

[ ... ]

Nope, you cant abondon your "copyrights".
Clarification:
The mother of those rights which are often called "copyright" is a right
which is called (translated from german) "creators rights".

The creator of a given subject has "rights of an author".

This is called (translated from german) a natural law. Or a divine
law. This can't be removed, given up or even transfered.

[ ... ]

Regards,
    Angelo

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