[License-discuss] Can copyrights be abandoned to the public domain?

[John Cowan]

Russ Nelson scripsit:

> And yet we know that bridges collapse. Is it reasonable to take steps
> against bridges collapsing? We (mostly) don't build bridges out of
> wood (software from moral rights countries), but instead out of steel
> and concrete (countries where people cannot retroactively change the
> license on open source software).

Has anyone tried to revoke their (or their predecessor's) license
and lost in court?  I think not.  Indeed the Raymond/Olanich paper
at http://www.catb.org/esr/Licensing-HOWTO.html#changing discusses
changing the license on OSS, which of course involves revoking the
previous license.

-- 
Using RELAX NG compact syntax to        John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>
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        --Jeni Tennison                 <cowan at ccil.org>