From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,c887193050c097ce X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-02-11 23:22:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!headwall.stanford.edu!unlnews.unl.edu!newsfeed.ksu.edu!nntp.ksu.edu!news.okstate.edu!not-for-mail From: David Starner Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Problem with GNAT modified GPL and SourceForge Date: 12 Feb 2002 06:20:39 GMT Organization: Oklahoma State University Message-ID: References: <3C625604.1C948A06@gmx.de> Reply-To: starner@okstate.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: x8b4e5449.dhcp.okstate.edu User-Agent: slrn/0.9.7.3 (Linux) Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:19906 Date: 2002-02-12T06:20:39+00:00 List-Id: On Mon, 11 Feb 2002 10:07:35 -0500, Marin David Condic wrote: > And I > think there's some maximum number of years a copyright can be renewed > anyway - 99 years? - so its a good bet this stuff has slipped into the > Public Domain. :-) It's considerably more hairy then that, and no country I know of still requires copyrights to be renewed, but yes, Shakespear is in the public domain. > Anybody is free to make and sell - or give away - copies of Shakespear's > "Hamlet" provided that they make copies from a public domain source. (Once > you put it into a book of your own though, you can have a copyright on that > instance of "Hamlet" so photocopying your book and redistributing it would > be a violation. But that's another story.) A copyright requires creative work, at least in the US. Just taking a public domain copy of Hamlet and slapping it onto paper does not qualify; you'd have to add copyrighted pictures, footnotes or endnotes to get copyright on it (again, in the US.) If you look at most of the Penguin Books, or the Dover books (two companies that slap* public domain text onto paper, mainly for cheap college editions), they claim copyright on the introduction, but not on the text. * The negative connotations are well deserved in some cases, as they don't often bother resetting the text, instead just making a straight photocopy of an older setting. -- David Starner - starner@okstate.edu Pointless website: http://dvdeug.dhis.org What we've got is a blue-light special on truth. It's the hottest thing with the youth. -- Information Society, "Peace and Love, Inc."