On Sun, 31 May 2009, Antony Stone wrote:

>> A) Some people claim to do things (write programs for example) that they
>> hand over to "public domain". This may or may not be accepted legally.
>
> Just because something is put into the public domain for anyone to use in
> any way they wish doesn't really have anything to do with the copyright
> associated with its creation. Public Domain is more like a licence to use
> and distribute the software; the fact that the person who wrote it in the
> first place retains copyright over it doesn't stop someone else using it in
> a way the author permits.

Right. That's your *opinion* on the matter and hence I said that people are
debating these issues. The issue of public domain and copyright or not, in
software, has been going on for many years and I forsee that it will continue
for a long time still.

Some people actually claim that they (have the right to completely) resign all
copyright ownerships when they release their stuff as public domain.

I'm not taking a stand here. I'm merely saying that this is an area where
there are no definite facts.

-- 
  / daniel.haxx.se