"Perry E. Metzger" <perry@wasabisystems.com> wrote:
> 
> Jan Schaumann <jschauma@netbsd.org> writes:

> > So if no copyright exists (cgd just confirmed to me that the original
> > from which he imported this file did not have any copyright notice
> > either), I assume we consider it public domain?
> 
> Under the international copyright treaties both our countries have
> signed, mere absence of a copyright notice does not place a work in
> the public domain. The default assumption is that something cannot be
> copied, not that it is public domain. All works are "born copyrighted".

True[1].  But my assumption is that given that the document is
uncopyrighted in our source tree, it must be public domain (or similar)
as otherwise we surely would have included the copyright, the author or
the terms of the license.

Anyway,

> If there is a file in the distribution that doesn't have a proper
> copyright, you should get someone to find out where it came from and
> have a proper copyright added.

this is probably TRTTD.  May not be possible, though.

-Jan


[1] If by "both our countries" you mean the US and Germany and provided
that W doesn't "unsign" that treay as well ;-)