Can abandonment be irrevocable?

[Lawrence E. Rosen]

> 1) can Alice can regain ownership of the right?
> 
> What about 1)? How could Alice go about it??

Regain ownership?  What do you mean by that?  Have her name inscribed on
a rock somewhere?  Or regain her authority and dominion over a work that
she previously abandoned so that she can prevent people from doing what
she previously permitted them to do?

I agree with a previous email, this is probably a question of equitable
estoppel.  

I don't know why it would any different if one granted an "irrevocable"
open source license, and then revoked it.  Probably a new licensee with
notice of the revocation can't obtain a license.

Does this have practical implications for any real-world scenario, or
are we just speculating here?

/Larry Rosen

--
license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3