From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Paul Eggert Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: feedmail.el in the public domain? Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:12:57 -0700 Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department Message-ID: <60200ba3-7f9c-3e65-3620-031b05ff3d4f@cs.ucla.edu> References: <83h8isj59j.fsf@gnu.org> <83worlgwmw.fsf@gnu.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1537157487 4973 195.159.176.226 (17 Sep 2018 04:11:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2018 04:11:27 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/52.9.1 Cc: eliz@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org To: Stefan Monnier , Richard Stallman Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Mon Sep 17 06:11:22 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1g1ksb-0001Cv-Ea for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 17 Sep 2018 06:11:21 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33556 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g1kuh-0004MX-TM for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:13:31 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:33532) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g1kub-0004MG-Uy for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:13:26 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g1kuY-0004d0-OE for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:13:25 -0400 Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([131.179.128.68]:54016) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1g1kuG-0004U3-7c; Mon, 17 Sep 2018 00:13:04 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id 985AB161511; Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:13:01 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10032) with ESMTP id U4MAo6dS0_d7; Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:13:00 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC7221615E8; Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:13:00 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at zimbra.cs.ucla.edu Original-Received: from zimbra.cs.ucla.edu ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (zimbra.cs.ucla.edu [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10026) with ESMTP id FLEb_Aghd0y2; Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:13:00 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from [192.168.1.9] (cpe-23-242-74-103.socal.res.rr.com [23.242.74.103]) by zimbra.cs.ucla.edu (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 80A17161511; Sun, 16 Sep 2018 21:13:00 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Content-Language: en-US X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 3.x X-Received-From: 131.179.128.68 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:229884 Archived-At: Stefan Monnier wrote: > 1- Take a file from public domain. > 2- Make many small changes to it over the course of several years (all > after the Berne convention). > 3- Assume the sum of those changes is significantly higher than the > "20-lines triviality threshold". > 4- Is the result still public domain? No, the result is public domain only if the contributors deliberately place it into the public domain, in a process known as dedication. And that process is legally controversial for works created after 1976 in the US - though I'm perhaps giving you more detail than you want to know, Creative Commons recommends against relying on such dedications . > If not, then the notice on this file (and others like it) is incorrect > [ This case better matches my mental model of how copyright law works. ] You're right about this.