26 Jul
2005
26 Jul
'05
10:42 p.m.
A friend of mine passed away last week, and I am in the process of
getting all the classic computer stuff from his house. Somewhere in all
of this I am told that he wrote quite a few utility programs for CP/M.
While I don't think it would make any difference, the executor of his
estate is willing to sign a document stating that anything he wrote is
now in the public domain. Question; what kind of document is available
to do this?
BTW, so far I've collected at least half a dozen Kaypros, one Osborne,
and a number of others. I will be going over to start on the garage in a
few minutes.
26 Jul
26 Jul
10:49 p.m.
While I don't think it would make any difference,
the
executor of his estate is willing to sign a document
stating that anything he wrote is now in the public
domain. Question; what kind of document is available to do this?
I'm sure GNU have one that they ask you to sign when you
turn over code to them. Perhaps that would do?
I assume that the GNU docs are freely usable :-)
Antonio
11:05 p.m.
>>>> "Antonio" == Antonio Carlini
<a.carlini at ntlworld.com> writes:
> While I don't think it would make any
difference, the executor of
> his estate is willing to sign a document stating that anything he
> wrote is now in the public domain. Question; what kind of document
> is available to do this?
Antonio> I'm sure GNU have one that they ask you to sign when you
Antonio> turn over code to them. Perhaps that would do?
Not a chance. GNU stuff is NOT in the public domain.
paul
11:06 p.m.
On Tue, July 26, 2005 5:49 pm, Antonio Carlini said:
IANAL, but the GNU license is not really public domain; it puts restrictions
on how the code can be used (derivative works must release source, credit must
be given, etc). I think the older term "Public Domain" is more like
transfering the copyright from the author to the general public, with no
restrictions (or warranty) on how it is used.
Creative Commons has a public domain license, along with a place to store the
content and publicize the license. It *might* not be for software, but it's a
very informative page and does have the text of a public domain license:
http://creativecommons.org/license/
Jeff
While I don't think it would make any
difference, the
executor of his estate is willing to sign a document
stating that anything he wrote is now in the public
domain. Question; what kind of document is available to do this?
I'm sure GNU have one that they ask you to sign when you
turn over code to them. Perhaps that would do? 
11:12 p.m.
On Tue, July 26, 2005 5:49 pm, Antonio Carlini said:
IANAL, but the GNU license is not really public domain; it puts restrictions
on how the code can be used (derivative works must release source, credit must
be given, etc). I think the older term "Public Domain" is more like
transferring all rights for use to the general public, with no restrictions
(or warranty) on how it is used.
Creative Commons has a public domain license, along with a place to store the
content and publicize the license. It *might* not be for software, but it's
an informative site and does have a link to the text of a public domain
license:
http://creativecommons.org/license/
Jeff
While I don't think it would make any
difference, the
executor of his estate is willing to sign a document
stating that anything he wrote is now in the public
domain. Question; what kind of document is available to do this?
I'm sure GNU have one that they ask you to sign when you
turn over code to them. Perhaps that would do? 
27 Jul
27 Jul
1:40 a.m.
stating that anything he wrote is now in the public
domain.
Question: what kind of document is available to do this?
Antonio replied:
I'm sure GNU have one that they ask you to sign
when you
turn over code to them.
No, they don't. The GNU license isn't public domain, and public
domain isn't the GNU license. I think the GNU license is a good
thing overall, and I think public domain is pretty good too, but
they aren't the same.
Tim.
7:18 a.m.
No, they don't. The GNU license isn't public
domain,
I know that the GNU stuff is hardly public domain, but
I thought the document must say something that states
"I, my-name, being of sound mind and-other-legal stuff
do hereby legal-words-for-hand-over all-those-legal-words
for-the-full-set-of-rights to whoever", which at least
gives you a starting point for how to work out what you want
to hand over. I presume that there's a whole bunch of
different rights and what nots that the executor wants to
give up without incurring any liabilities etc.
Antonio
1:44 a.m.
Marvin wrote:
stating that anything he wrote is now in the public
domain.
Question: what kind of document is available to do this?
There was a standard DECUS release form which software submitters
signed, that said they were putting it in the public domain.
Problem was, sometimes they signed this form when somebody other
than them owned the software. Kinda made life complicated after
that, they also added even more boilerplate about how the sumbitter/
signer really did author all the code and nobody else has rights.
Even then there were some battles.
Will try to dig up the boilerplate. It's probably on the DECUS
site.
Tim.
7113
days inactive
7113
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7 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
a.carlini＠ntlworld.com -
jdavis＠soupwizard.com -
jdaviscl2＠soupwizard.com -
marvin＠rain.org -
pkoning＠equallogic.com -
shoppa_classiccmp＠trailing-edge.com