Can OSI specify that public domain is open source?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Chad Perrin (perrin at apotheon.com):

> If something's public domain, and your country does not recognize it as
> such, I think your best bet is probably to get in touch with the
> copyright holder and ask for relicensing so you can use the work.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This 'copyright holder', this would be the fellow who owns the now
supposedly nonexistent copyright title, right?  ;->

(Methinks there might be some lingering confusion about what the term
means, just as I observe in people who put warranty disclaimer
agreements into their PD declarations:  The recipient agrees to absolve
the fellow who just disclaimed ownership of the copyright from warranty
liability; otherwise the copyright owner will.... um, what was that
again?)