Peter Donald wrote:
>
> At 10:03 AM 6/7/01 -0400, Berin Loritsch wrote:
> >Alex Fern�ndez wrote:
> >
> >> I read 12 fallacies and flaws in 5 sentences:
> >> 06- "in the public domain" was the term used 20 years ago for open
> >> source. Not useful any more.
> >
> >Not entirely accurate. Public Domain is a copyright law term referring to a
> >published work where the copyright has expired OR the author chose to waive
> >their copyright. While it is true that there were several freely available
> >source code distributions that were in the public domain, but they had no
> >protection.
> >
> >A work in the public domain cannot have any license or protection under the
> >law. This means anyone can use the work, and make dirivitive works on it
> >without consequence or ramifications. It also means that you can strip the
> >original author's name from the source code and put your own there--nothing
> >the author can do.
>
> IMHO there is a far worse characteristeric of PD works. Usually
> opensource/free-software has a disclaimer clause in license (ie the don't
> sue me if the program screws your computer clause). Because users of the
> program accept the license (or else they couldn't use program/source), this
> gives the developer protection. They can't be harmed if a bug in their
> software causes damage to a system.
This will be my last post on the subject, but this is also a misnomer.
Public Domain works are open to all without license or warranty. They
cannot have any license or warranty due to the nature of public domain
as a whole.
If you use public domain code, and it screws up your system, there is
no one to prosecute except yourself. The reason being is that once a
work enters the public domain, there is no guarantee that the copy of
the work you have is the original.
This is especially true in the USA where a copyright lasts 50 years after
someone dies (only for works copywritten after 1971). If a work has
gone into public domain at this point, not only is the code archaic, but
there is no one alive to help you out anyway.
Basically Public Domain works are completely unprotected in every way shape
or form, and their use is also unprotected in every way shape or form.
That is why it is best to have a license of some sort.
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