Re: A Little Linguistic Playground

On Fri, 12 Mar 1999, Oliver Seely <oliver[_at_]dhvx20.csudh.edu> wrote:
>
> "I love it!
>
> Copyright (c) 1999 by Oliver Seely and decopyrighted immediately
> thereafter.
>
> Ought we not to have a special symbol for this process?"

How about "C" in a circle with a diagonal line through it? :-)

I agree with some of the other comments that "decopyright" sounds ugly, and the other variations produce similarly ugly results: uncopyright, noncopyright, copyleft (William Buckley and Pat Buchanan probably hate this one), copywrong, copyunright, public domained, etc.

At least "decopyright" conveys the idea that (1) there was a copyright, (2) it was owned by the "decopyrighter", and (3) the copyright is affirmatively abandoned, placing the work in the public domain.

By contrast, public domain is a great catch-all or category for any work that is not protected, regardless of how the work enters the public domain.

Here's a counterproposal: "Copyright (c) by Oliver Seeley and abandoned to the public domain immediately thereafter." No muss, no fuss, no new words needed. It may be less fun than creating a new word, but it achieves the same result.

--Fred Wilf

Frederic M. Wilf Technology & Intellectual Property Law Saul Ewing Remick & Saul Email fwilf[_at_]saul.com or fwilf[_at_]compuserve.com 1055 Westlakes Drive Firm URL http://www.saul.com Berwyn, PA 19312, U.S.A. Wilf URL http://www.saul.com/lawyers/5082.html Received on Mon Mar 15 1999 - 15:14:48 GMT