On Wednesday 14 January 2009 10:54, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: > On Wednesday 14 Jan 2009 10:34:03 am jtd wrote: > > > when releasing your work under public domain, you relinquish > > > your rights under the law of copyright - but you still have all > > > your rights under the law of torts and criminal law. Which > > > means that if someone distorts what you said, and attributes it > > > to you, you can sue them or prosecute them. > > > > Interesting. But do you still retain the copyright, and others > > dont need permission from you to use subject to torts and > > criminal law? > > releasing something in public domain simply means relinquishing > copyright. Public domain is *not* a license. Once you relinquish > your copyright, no one has copyright on the work. Anyone can use it > as they like without any permission or need to attribute. > > For example, the works of shakespeare are in public domain. Anyone > can print them in any way they want, with or without distortions > and shakespeare, or his heirs cannot complain. But if I published a > shakespeare sonnet as if I was the author, I would be guilty of > plagiarism - and depending on the context, subject to various > penalties. If I did the same with a copyrighted work, I can be sued > for breach of copyright as well as be subject to the penalties > connected with plagiarism. > > Similarly I can publish Rony's comments without attribution - I can > also distort or mangle them - but if I do so in such a way as to > imply that he has said something he has not said, he has a cause of > action to sue me in the civil court, and possible also a case under > section 499/500 IPC to prosecute me in the criminal court. > > There is a group of people spreading FUD that the BSD license is > public domain. It is not. It is a license, and the author retains > copyright with all the rights that he has not released under the > license. > > There is also the view that public domain is not recognised in law > - but as far as India is concerned, the copyright act recognises > public domain, so that is not an issue here. >
Thanks. That was most useful. -- Rgds JTD -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
