Re: Problem with GNAT modified GPL and SourceForge

[Keith Thompson <kst@cts.com>]

"Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> writes:
> "Simon Wright" <simon@pushface.org> wrote in message
> news:x7vg047ls6f.fsf@smaug.pushface.org...
> > I was surprised (shouldn't have been, I guess) to find that our (UK)
> > lawyers seem to place a different meaning on the phrase "public
> > domain". They say we should not say "(c) XYZ plc 2002" on any document
> > we are not intending to be used for publicity purposes because it
> > "places the document in the public domain". I have no idea what this
> > means to them, IANAL, but there certainly seems to be a difference
> > between what these guys think and what most of us have come to
> > understand by the phrase.
[...]

That is surprising.  I had thought that the US and most European
countries followed the Berne Convention for copyrights, so the rules
should be about the same in most places.  I seem to recall that "(c)"
is not a valid copyright indication; you need either the c-in-a-circle
symbol or the word "copyright".  Could that be what you're referring
to?

> Maybe because it makes the work something accessible to the public?
> As opposed to "company private" or "classified" or whatever else you
> might want to do to make a work a private matter?

I think you're talking about a "trade secret".

> The terminology is certainly confusing. Obviously, one always needs to
> consult legal counsel to be sure, but with a newsgroup as international as
> this and the subject of copyright and licensing coming up fairly often for
> one reason or another, it would help to have a shared understanding of what
> was meant when using certain terminology.

Indeed.

Some sources of information about copyright (certainly better than my
own semi-informed ramblings) are:

<http://www.benedict.com/>
<http://fairuse.stanford.edu/library/faq.html>
<http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html>
<http://www.tjc.com/copyright/> (not currently available)

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@cts.com  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center           <*>  <http://www.sdsc.edu/~kst>
Cxiuj via bazo apartenas ni.