Copyright & License Questions

[John Cowan]

Lawrence E. Rosen wrote:


> And suppose you later retract your abandonment?  What's to prevent that?


What's to prevent my "retracting" any abandonment of any sort?
If I put my chair on the street with a signed notice saying "I, the
owner of this chair, abandon all rights to it" (neglecting for the
moment the question of littering laws), do you suggest that someone
couldn't rely on that notice and take the chair away?  And if I tried to
replevy the chair, don't you think I would be laughed out of court?

But I suppose one could concoct a proper license of this sort,
the Permissive Public License (PPL).  See my next posting.


> The term "public domain" specifically includes works whose copyright has
> expired, and works for which copyright is not allowed (e.g., US
> government works).  


Fair enough.  What else it might or might not include is not

apparent from Title 17.

-- 
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan at reutershealth.com>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein