Re: "placed into public domain" software from droit d'auteur developers

[Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>]

Florian Weimer writes:

> If someone claims that he has placed his software into public domain,
> and the person is subject to the jurisdiction of one of the droit
> d'auteur countries (Germany for example[1]), shall we interpret this
> claim as null and void, or as the grant of very broad usage rights to
> the general public?

There are similar problems with copyright law in the US, which has no
explicit way to waive copyright.  The way I personally would interpret
this is as an unlimited, irrevocable grant of all transferable rights.

Michael Poole