Public Domain and liability

[John Cowan]

On Mon, 7 Aug 2000, Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M. wrote:

> Strictly speaking, this discussion is theoretical since I know of no public
> domain works that are software programs. (This is not to say that  there is
> not any source code in the public domain).

Software programs written by U.S. government employees 
within the scope of their employment are surely in the public domain.
For example, see the software programs linked to
http://mapping.usgs.gov/www/products/software.html .
As a specific example, http://geochange.er.usgs.gov/pub/tools/misc/reform.c
is the source code for a public-domain program (though not explicitly
dedicated to the public domain within the code itself).

-- 
John Cowan                                   cowan at ccil.org
C'est la` pourtant que se livre le sens du dire, de ce que, s'y conjuguant
le nyania qui bruit des sexes en compagnie, il supplee a ce qu'entre eux,
de rapport nyait pas.               -- Jacques Lacan, "L'Etourdit"