🚀 go-pugleaf

thelake!steve@stag.UUCP (Steve Yelvington) wrote (maybe) :
>
> ...no takers, so he was releasing them as "public domain" but retaining the
> copyright. (That's a contradiction, but I suppose he means "you can pass
> this around and use it as you see fit.")

Then The Association for Computing Machinery (:-)) writes:
> Unless I'm mistaken, your holding a copyright to a program simply means 
> you are the only person who has the right to make money from it.
> Plinio Barbeito

[This comes up a lot in computer circles so note this please.]

Plinio is mistaken. Copyright means just that, the right to control the
copies. Generally authors allow copies to be made if you send them
some money for each one. They may also make other provisions such as
"You may copy this work if you do not profit by making that copy." 
Or the all encompassing "No copy of this work may be made without express
written permission of the author." (sometimes folks just say "All rights
reserved."). 

And now for the scary part. If you, the author, put the words "public
domain" on the work they _supercede_ the copyright notice and the
work becomes public domain. And anyone can do anything with public
domain programs with out so much as a nod in the author's direction.
The worst problem is when someone collects some public domain programs
and sells them as "their" tools package for $59.95 or what ever. The
author has no recourse in this case, period. So the bottom line is
never, never, never, never, call something you wrote public domain
unless you really mean public domain. You can call it freely redistributable
which is what you probably meant anyway. And of course be sure to 
put a legal copyright on all works, follow up with a registration 
if you are going to market it. A legal copyright notice consists of
the word "Copyright", the year, and the name of the copyright holder.
Following the copyright should be a statement of rights indicating 
your wishes, if you don't have a statement then add on that says "All
rights reserved." If you don't do this then you will be taken advantage
of by unscrupulous people in the computer business and you will not
be able to sue them.


--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.