> This is not _nearly_ strong enough. It would be more fair to state that > there are serious doubts whether it's possible to simply declare > something to be in the public domain, and that such a declaration may > have either no legal effect, or an effect different from what you > intend. Further, that effect may differ by jurisdiction.
Rick, I think in the U.S. there is no doubt that it is possible for an author to dedicate a work to the public domain. Abandonment is a recognized defense against copyright infringement, and is ordinarily thought to occur when the author (i) intends to surrender rights to the work, and (ii) performs some overt act evidencing such intent (Nimmer on Copyright, 13.06). If an author published a work for free to the entire world with an express notice of her intent to dedicate the work to the public domain, I can't imagine any judge would fail to find abandonment (and I'm not aware of any case to the contrary). It is also generally held that abandonment of a work can occur if "the copyright owner authorized or acquiesced in the wide circulation of the copies without notice" (Stuff v. E.C. Publications, 342 f.2d 143) (this case is relevant to the example you gave). Greg (tinla) -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
