Re: DEP5: Public domain works

[Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org>]

Russ Allbery dijo [Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 05:03:22PM -0800]:
> I'm happy to see public domain added as a license keyword.  (I'd rather
> the keyword be something like public-domain, not PD, but that's somewhat
> bikeshed painting.)  I think the subsequent lines of the License field in
> that case should be the justification for why the file is in the public
> domain (US government work, out of copyright, what have you).

I also think it is a good idea to have the keyword explicitly
recognized. However, true, indisputable and worldwide public domain is
really hard to define. Works in the public domain in Europe (70 years
post mortem auctoris) are copyrighted works in Mexico (105 years post
mortem auctoris). And there is a huge amount of works written,
photographed, recorded by people who died betwee 1905 and 1940!