Re: Public Domain

[Alan Edelson <amedelson@topnet.net>]

I suggest that the "decopyrighting" of a piece of music should employ a
special term, namely "decomposing".

Similarly, for a picture, the term should be "depict", for a testing
program, the term should be "detest", for a data base, the term should be
"debase", and so forth.

-Alan Edelson

bede wrote:

> >From: Joseph P. and Connie M. Riolo <riolo@voicenet.com>
> >
> >If one desires to put his/her work in the public domain, he has to write
> >a statement to effectuate it such as "I put this essay in the public
> >domain".  This is fine for most people but the term "public domain" is
> >not intuitive because it does not resemble the term "copyright" in any
> >way.  Therefore, I propose a new word called "decopyright".  It means to
> >deprive a work of the copyright.
>
> This is a bit oxymoronic in that the whole underpinning of creative
> protection is the acceptance of the abstract concept that by its creation
> a work attracts copyright automatically. In some countries this has been
> codified by the requirement to place some notice in a prescribed form, but
> in other places it is accepted at law that this protection is automatic.
>
> Revisit the conventions and treaties that our governments entered into
> some years ago to see that the framework exists, even without new words
> being added to the lexicon.
>
> If one knows / learnt what 'copyright' means and represents, then
> knowledge of 'public domain' is a part of that. If not, then the lesson
> has not been taught properly as they are intimate to each other.
>
> Best regards
>
> Bede