Brian Behlendorf wrote: > On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Brian Behlendorf scripsit: > > > So what happens when I download the code under a FOIA/public domain issue, > > > and then relicense under a BSD license? Don't I have the right to > > > relicense PD works? > > > > You can do anything you want to with a public domain work except try to assert > > a valid copyright on it, which is one of the incidents of the BSD or any > > other open-source license. So, no. > > So I have no right to create a derivative work of a public domain work and > release that derivative work under a license of my choice?
Sure you can. It's just that you can't claim a copyright to the original public domain work itself. You seemed to suggest doing that (rather than creating a derivative work) above when you said "downloading public domain code and relicensing it under BSD". The interesting question is whether I can then take your BSD'ed work and extract the public domain parts. It seems logical I should be able to do that, but there have been lots of lawsuits about "restored" versions of PD works and whether the result is copyright-protected. Arnoud -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3