[WikiEN-l] Re: Copyright violation

Mon Nov 17 01:00:37 UTC 2003

Axel Boldt wrote:

> Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
>> Axel Boldt wrote:
>>
>>> Ironically, the bulk of [[Chess strategy and tactics]] was written 
>>> by me and is therefore in the public domain.
>>
>> Who defends the public domain?
>
> Material that's in the public domain remains in the public domain 
> forever. Nobody can attack it and nobody can defend it. You can slap a 
> bogus copyright notice on a public domain work, but that does not 
> change its public domain status.

This is a problem!  I see "public domain" as "belonging to the people". 
 When I ask about who defends the public domain, I implicitly ask about 
who defends the collective rights of the people.

You're right to say public domain status continues despite bogus 
copright claims, but that claim is not without implications.  The ones 
whose use of that material is chilled, are likely those without the 
resources to verify those claims.  I have plenty of material in old 
obscure books that are well into the public domain, if I were so 
inclined, it would be easy to publish it under my own copyright, and 
take steps (falsely) to defend that copyright.

Ec