Can abandonment be irrevocable?

[John Cowan]

Peter Fairbrother scripsit:

> Does the author actually "lose" copyright by abandonment? Lose ownership?
> Lose the copyright itself? If so, what happens to it? Copyright exists by
> statute until expiry, so afaict it can't just "disappear".
> 
> Copyright is a legal, as opposed to a natural or equitable right, and every
> text on rights I have read says that legal rights cannot be abandoned.

Say what?  Every time I throw a piece of paper in the trash, my property
right in the paper, which exists *in perpetuity* at common law, is
abandoned, and the paper becomes *res nullius*, which anyone can
appropriate.  Copyright being a creature of statute and incorporeal,
can't be appropriated like a piece of paper.  So either abandonment is
not possible, or it has the effect of dedicating the work to the
public domain.

-- 
Híggledy-pìggledy / XML programmers            John Cowan
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