On Mon, 25 Apr 2005, Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> Glenn Maynard wrote:
> > Huh? I've never heard of this. I've only heard of problems with the
> > public domain in other jurisdictions (Germany?), not in the US.
>
> In pre-BCIA (1989) US law, copyright was surrendered by deliberately
> publishing without a copyright notice. This was pretty much the
> standard method, and I am not aware of any other method being
> sanctioned by the courts or the law.
The standard method now (AFAIK) is to apply 17c2§201d.1[1] to transfer
the ownership of the work to the public:
(1) The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or
in part by any means of conveyance or by operation of law, and
may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the
applicable laws of intestate succession.
That's effectively what is being done (or at least, what's being
attempted) in the cases where you state "This work is placed into the
public domain."
Don Armstrong
1: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000201----000-.html
--
"The question of whether computers can think is like the question of
whether submarines can swim."
-- Edsgar Dijkstra
http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
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