Re: public domain question

On 03/23/2000, Robert A. Baron <rabaron[_at_]pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> When you think of the Public Domain, do you think of a body of works
> owned in common by everybody or do you think of a body of works owned
> by nobody?

Allow me to add another citation to bolster my view that public domain should mean common ownership: In Mayer v. Josiah Wedgwood & Sons, Ltd., 601 F. Supp. 1523 (1985), the work fell into the public domain because of publication without copyright notice (back when notice was still required). The court said:

   It is elementary that once copyrightable material is published    without the author's first securing federal copyright protection,    the author loses his property interest in the material. The    material becomes public property. ... In this case, Mayer no    longer owned her design. The public did.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Associate Professor
Whittier Law School
<tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> Received on Fri Apr 07 2000 - 01:15:14 GMT