Can abandonment be irrevocable?

[Peter Fairbrother]

John Cowan wrote:

> 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.  

Your property right of ownership of the piece of paper isn't a legal right -
it's an equitable right. It can be abandoned, no problemo.

> 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.

Any clue as to which, if either? Any authority for that clue?


-- 
Peter Fairbrother

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