Re: Re: Software Licensing Agreement - Public Domain dedication

On 2/9/06, Andrew SkinnerLopata <asl[_at_]callatg.com> wrote:
>
> Yes, a work must be original to be protected, but if you mix parts of a
> public domain work with original content to create a new work where do
> you draw the line?

Section 103(b) already covers it. If there is portion in a new work that can be easily identified as a preexisting material that is in the public domain, that portion is obviously in the public domain. But, if the portion can't be clearly identified as a preexisting material that is in the public domain and the author of the new work is not honest, we will never know it until the author confesses.

This is no difference from copyrighted works. I can copy small pieces from many copyrighted works for my own new works. I don't have to tell the world where I get the small pieces. The authors of these copyrighted works will not know that I copy small pieces from them because they cannot identify the pieces.

> If there are multiple works based on an underlying
> PD work, can the earlier users eat up some of the territory and exclude
> others? Disney made millions by producing films based on public domain
> stories but then sues others for using the same stories because it's too
> close to their work.

You have to show a court case where Disney sued people for copying the public domain stories.

> See e.g. Walt Disney Productions v. Filmation
> Associates, 628 F.Supp. 871(1986) (Filmation liable for story boards of
> Pinocchio that looked too much like Disney's work).

Without seeing the court decision, I have some doubts on what you said. I googled on the title of the court case and read some comments on the case. Apparently, the case is not about copying the public domain work but about Filmation's copying Disney's copyrighted works during the interim before the Filmation's new work was finalized.

> I'm not sure how
> this would play out in a computer software scenario, but I'd still
> characterize dedication to the public domain as a risk (if the dedicator
> wants to continue to modify and develop the software).

You are creating fictional risk here. There is no risk to the dedicator who continues to develop the software. All he has to do is to create new expressions on his own and not to copy the copyrightable portions from other works.

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com>
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>

Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 4,708

Public domain notice: I put all of my expressions in this post in the public domain. Received on Fri Feb 10 2006 - 22:00:00 GMT