On Tue, 17 Feb 2004, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote: > I don't think it is legal in the USA to apply your own license to > a public domain work. How can you license something to which you > do not have a copyright?
This is just some of the odd things we end up if we play the word game we were being lead into. I was trying to follow with the concept that a work in the public domain in the USA, unrelated to copyright term differences, was potentially not in the public domain outside of the USA. If NASA has the ability to apply a license in a foreign country to a works that is in the public domain in the USA, then does not any other US citizen have the ability to apply a license as well? If these other US citizens do not, then does NASA? Does the concept of there being a "copyright holder" outside of the USA make sense when US legislation says that the US government creator does not receive copyright inside the USA? > I think so. In fact it may be impossible for a work to truly enter > the public domain in any other way. Most countries recognize the > concept of 'moral rights' that are inalienable rights of the > author and which cannot be transferred or given up. Different countries treat this differently. In Canada you can waive your moral rights, but cannot transfer them. If the phrase "public domain" means "not protected by copyright", then the actual meaning of the public domain changes in every country as copyright is different in every country. I will be watching the work of iCommons Canada <http://www.cippic.ca/icommons-canada> and suggest that they include a Canadian public domain declaration in with their Canadianized license agreements. My hope is that once they are finished the Creative Commons licenses that they will start into some of the most popular OSI and FSF approved software licenses. I wonder if the OSI is interested in this type of International work similar to what the Creative Commons is doing? http://creativecommons.org/projects/international/ --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> Perspective of a digital copyright reformer on Sheila Copps, MP. http://www.flora.ca/russell/drafts/copps-ndp.html Discuss at: http://www.lulu.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2757 -- license-discuss archive is at http://crynwr.com/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi?3
