Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: GCL info docs and ANSI CL spec

[Michael Koehne]

Moin Camm Maguire,

> Sam -- before one goes on and does something so intrusive as to bother
> the family of the deceased, don't we have to ask ourselves what
> exactly is the problem here?  The spec to my knowledge is public
> domain, and one can reformat it and distribute it as one wishes, to my
> admittedly non-expert understanding.

  are you sure that everybody is allowed to modify them ? most UN, ISO,
  ANSI and DIN standards are immutable. So one is allowed to copy (some of)
  them, but not to modify them, e.g. most things are allowed with the
  UN/EDIFACT standard, but :

: Unless you have received written permission from the UN, you may NOT:
: 
: 1.   Sell, sub-license, rent, lease, or assign the Directory; and
: 2.   Modify the Directory and distribute it.

  now the copyright of the CLHS looks like, if Harlequin Group Limited
  had the permission to modify the standard (even if we talk about
  layout) and to 'sub-license' this version, under the constrain, that
  it should not further modified.  e.g. from CLHS :

: [ ... ]  and that any copy made is COMPLETE and UNMODIFIED. [ ... ]

  I wont call this public domain, ... ? PD is a fixed term in US law
  that might be constrained in certain types of public developement.

  would be funny, if a standard would be GPL'ed - so everybody would
  be allowed to improved it and to distributed improved versions of
  the ANSI standard ;)

Bye Michael
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