What happens when the copyright expires ?

[Lawrence E. Rosen]

Here was the question:

> 3) Furthermore if they stop being open source will they stop
> being open source 
> when the term of the first copyright year mentioned in a 
> composite work would 
> expire or when the last would expire ?

Suppose you have a "composite work" (I assume he meant "collective
work," the correct legal term) consisting of several works with
different copyright expiration dates.  Assume that the entire collective
work is licensed under an open source license.  When the earliest to
expire copyright of a component actually expires and that portion of the
collective work enters the public domain, the collective work remains an
open source work.  

A public domain work can be part of an open source work, a part of a
proprietary work, or you can use it as a snot rag.  The copyright law no
longer cares.

/Larry Rosen

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Don Jarrell [mailto:don at digitalthinkinginc.com] 
> Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 3:36 PM
> To: lrosen at rosenlaw.com; 'Mikael Andersson'; 
> license-discuss at opensource.org
> Subject: RE: What happens when the copyright expires ?
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lawrence E. Rosen 
> 
> > Fear not, they won't stop being open source.
> 
> > /Larry Rosen
> 
> Please explain.  If copyright expiration ends proprietary 
> license terms, why does it not end open source license terms 
> ? Aren't both based in the same right to determine distribution 
> terms for an original work as provided by the same Copyright Act ?
> 
> 
> Cheers.     dj 
> 
> ******************************************************** 
> Don B Jarrell                don at digitalthinkinginc.com 
> Digital Thinking Inc.        512 266 7126   home-office 
> www.digitalthinkinginc.com   972 467 6793          cell 
> ******************************************************** 
> 

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