Re: [iiwusynth-devel] License Alsa audio driver

[Bob Ham]

On Mon, 2003-03-10 at 11:25, Peter Hanappe wrote:
> > Unfortunately, if it doesn't say "this is released to the public domain"
> > or whatever, you unfortunately have to assume that it's not in the
> > public domain and the author's copyrights are still exercised.  Why do
> > you say it seems to be?  Is there such a notice?
> 
> I tought that if the author doesn't claim the copyright, it's in the
> public domain. And getting copyright protection is trivial, just write
> 'copyright <name>' on the document. I could be wrong, though.

I'm afraid it's the other way around, at least in the UK.  The author
doesn't need to *claim* his copyright as such; it's just a right that is
automatically granted to authors of any copyrightable material.  There
is no legal requirement to put a notice saying "Copyright <name>"; if
it's a copyrightable work, then the author automatically has copyright,
regardless of any notice.  I think the situation may be different in the
US.  I would have thought that French law would have been more in line
with UK law, however.  Of course, IANAL, so it'd best to talk someone
who knows their French law :)

Bob

-- 
Bob Ham <address@hidden>