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

[Lawrence Rosen]

Russ Nelson wrote:
> I hear a lot of whistling past the graveyard here. As people point out,
> it's never happened yet, and so it never will happen. Not a cause for 
> concern; move along, nothing to see here.

Russ, among the things I worry about in FOSS, moral rights are among the
least worrisome. I'd almost welcome litigation about this issue so that we
can expunge "morality" from "software". 

If you want to worry about copyright law, consider 17 USC 203. [1] Tell me
what you experience as you drive over that bridge....

/Larry

[1] http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/203 

Lawrence Rosen
Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com)
3001 King Ranch Rd., Ukiah, CA 95482
Office: 707-485-1242


-----Original Message-----
From: Russ Nelson [mailto:nelson at crynwr.com] 
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 7:32 AM
To: license-discuss at opensource.org
Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Can copyrights be abandoned to the public
domain?

John Cowan writes:
 > 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?

That's something different. I know that there's a theory which says that
copyright permissions, even if granted "irrevokably", can be withdrawn.
That's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about moral rights,
where you can put something under an open source license which (at least in
our theory) allow changes without limit and yet the law of the country where
moral rights exist allows the copyright holder to *prohibit* changes without
limit.

I hear a lot of whistling past the graveyard here. As people point out, it's
never happened yet, and so it never will happen. Not a cause for concern;
move along, nothing to see here.

-- 
--my blog is at    http://blog.russnelson.com
Crynwr supports open source software
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  |     Sheepdog       
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