[jdev] wiki.xmpp.org

[Dave Cridland]

On Tue Dec 22 19:34:42 2009, Kurt Zeilenga wrote:
> 
> On Dec 22, 2009, at 10:57 AM, David Ammouial wrote:
> 
> > On Tuesday 22 December 2009 09:55:57 Peter Saint-Andre wrote:
> >>> So, you change the license without asking all the content  
> authors out
> >>> there? ;-)
> >>
> >> It was in the public domain. They didn't have any rights. ;-)
> >
> > Do you mean it's possible to take a public-domain work and  
> re-license it
> > according to your will?
> 
> No.
> 
> But you can incorporate PD material in licensed work without  
> restriction.  While the combined work might well be subject to  
> other licenses, a work once placed in the public domain is always  
> forever in the public domain.   That is, you can (at least in  
> theory) extract the public domain work from the combined work and  
> use it without restriction.  Of course, in practice, extracting  
> such works from a combined work can be quite difficult.

Only, of course, in jurisdictions where PD exists as a concept.  
Otherwise it's rather like inserting BSD code into a GPL project -  
the code is still BSD, but the project as a whole is GPL. (BSD being,  
more or less, as close as you can get to PD in Europe, for instance,  
without really running through some hoops).

Of course, then there's Moral Rights to consider, which exist in some  
jurisdictions but (again) not others.

Dave.
-- 
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