166 lines
6.7 KiB
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166 lines
6.7 KiB
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[<a href="msg00442.html">Date Prev</a>][<a href="msg00444.html">Date Next</a>][<a href="msg00442.html">Thread Prev</a>][<a href="msg00444.html">Thread Next</a>][<a href="maillist.html#00443">Date Index</a>][<a href="threads.html#00443">Thread Index</a>]
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<h1>public_domain</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org">ldp-discuss@lists.linuxdoc.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Subject</em>: public_domain</li>
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<li><em>From</em>: <A HREF="mailto:bf347@lafn.org">bf347@lafn.org</A> (David Lawyer)</li>
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<li><em>Date</em>: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 00:15:46 -0700</li>
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<li><em>Reply-to</em>: <A HREF="mailto:bf347@lafn.org">bf347@lafn.org</A></li>
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<li><em>Resent-date</em>: 20 Oct 1999 07:16:01 -0000</li>
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<li><em>Resent-message-id</em>: <QvO7-D.A.K8D.wwWD4@murphy></li>
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<li><em>Resent-sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org">ldp-discuss-request@lists.debian.org</A></li>
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<pre>
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PUBLIC DOMAIN (Here are my thoughts on it)
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If a document doesn't have a copyright, it may be in the public
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domain. Some of the HOWTOs are like this. But I recall once seeing a
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statement that if you failed to include a license, then it would
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default to the LDP license. But if there's no copyright notice, then
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it probably doesn't need a license. Even if it was not the authors
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intention to place it in the public domain, people are likely to treat
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it as if it were in the public domain.
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Public domain is where there is no copyright on the work and includes
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cases where the copyright has expired. I believe that most government
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documents are in the public domain. Anyone may copy and sell or give
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away such a work. However one may also modify the work and then
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copyright the modified work. This means that the original is still in
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the public domain and may be still freely copied and modified. But
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you can't make copies of the copyrighted modified work (unless its
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license allows it).
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For free documentation, public domain has both advantages and
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disadvantages. I thinks the the disadvantages outweigh the advantages
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as I'll explain shortly. But first I'll explain the advantages. The
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advantages are that anyone can use it. You can use all or part of it
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and license the result under any license you want. If you copyright
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the derived work but have no license for it, then no one may make
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copies, distribute it, or modify it. Even so, the fact that it is
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based on public domain documentation should have a public benefit by
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reducing the price of the resulting work, since it required less
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effort to produce.
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For software, public domain is a real problem since if someone
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modifies the code and sells the result, you will likely never know
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about it since the source code will never be released. For documents
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in the public domain, finding out about them being modified and
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copyrighted is easier. The modified work is not concealed by binary
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code as it is for software.
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Now if one finds that someone else has modified their "public domain"
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document and copyrighted it without a license, then one may make their
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own modifications to the document, based in part on the copyrighted
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modifications. This is possible because facts are not copyrighted.
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One can't just copy the copyrighted doc or even paraphrase it. But
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one can note the new facts presented in it, double-check the "facts"
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elsewhere, and then put them into the original doc using their own
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words. Then there would be a new free? "public domain" document which
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is even better than the non-free one that someone else has
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copyrighted.
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What would happen if all LDP docs were public domain? One scenario is
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as above. If we had a large number of people working hard on
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documentation, we might be able to make our docs better than
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commercial ones that lifted our "public domain" and used them as a
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head start. Commercial firms would give up and leave the field to us,
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although they might print up our docs for people who want printed
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copies.
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But unfortunately there is a scenario at the opposite extreme: Most of
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our docs would be modified by commercial firms. But due to a shortage
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of volunteers, etc. we would fall far behind in keeping our docs
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up-to-date. The commercial docs would be so much better that our docs
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would not be of much use or benefit. This could lead to the demise of
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the LDP.
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The actual scenario would likely fall somewhere between the two
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extremes mentioned above. Since I think it would turn out to be
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closer to the "demise of the LDP" extreme, I'm stronly opposed to
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using "public domain" at this time.
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David Lawyer
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</pre>
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<li><strong><a name="00444" href="msg00444.html">Re: public_domain</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> Hugo.van.der.Kooij@caiw.nl</li></ul></li>
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<li><strong><a name="00445" href="msg00445.html">Re: public_domain</a></strong>
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<ul><li><em>From:</em> Gary Lawrence Murphy <garym@canada.com></li></ul></li>
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</ul></li></ul>
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