"Chris G. Demetriou" <cgd@alpha.bostic.com> speaks:

>If you place a piece of software into the public domain, then yes,
>others can grab it and slap their own copyright on it.  However, it's
>unclear (to me; perhaps not in a court of law) what would happen if
>they tried to sue you for illegal use of the software.  I would assume
>that the legal system does the right thing, but then, i don't put my
>software into the public domain.  8-)

It's clear that the lawyers win, in any case.  There's an implied
copyright on stuff you create even if you don't put an explicit
copyright notice on it.  Even if someone grabs it and sticks their
copyright on it, it's not clear than they could keep it.  But you'll
probably have to go to court and pay big bucks to lawyers to find out.
And if you don't fight for your copyrights, or only selectively enforce
them, you can lose them entirely.


	-- Parag Patel <parag@netcom.com>

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