Re: author needs public domain examples

On 01/30/2000, Stephen Fishman <sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I'm in the process of writing a guide to the public
> domain for the layperson that will be published by
> Nolo Press later this year. I would like to include in
> the book real examples of people who have successfully
> used public domain materials, such as public domain:
>
> writings
> music
> art
> architecture
> maps
> choreography
> computer software
> databases
> photography
> film and video.
>
> If you have examples you'd like to share with the
> reading public, please e-mail me. Anyone who
> participates will be given a free copy of the book (a
> $35 value) and be mentioned in the acknowledgements.

When you say "use", do you mean incorporating into/deriving a new work, or just plain "using" (this is in reference to computer software).

There's a lot of PD software that's used (in both senses). One prominent example is TeX (which I believe Knuth put in the PD), the only program I know of whose author offered rewards for bug finding, and long ago reported the last bug squished (of course, new versions / ports of it by others may not be so fortunate). There have been proprietary adaptations of it as well as many free software[1] variants, and it's in regular use by many (it's a standard for scientific publishing, and a standard component of most GNU/Linux distributions).

[1] free refers to freedom to copy/distribute/modify, not price

Lynn

Lynn Winebarger
<owinebar[_at_]free-expression.org> Received on Tue Feb 01 2000 - 23:48:29 GMT