Re: A Little Linguistic Playground

On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Thomas Workman <tworkman[_at_]erols.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 27 Mar 1999, David Dillard <jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu> wrote:
> >
> > 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?
> >
> > Could a possible symbol for the process of decopyrighting be a
> > picture of a photocopy machine, or perhaps the image of a web page?
>
> David,
>
> While you are at it, please come up with a symbol that allows anyone
> who does not believe in stop signs to be allowed to go through them
> without stopping. I know that it is the law to stop at stop signs,
> just like it is the law when a copyright attaches. But if anyone can
> do away with a law by just inventing a symbol, please come up with one
> for stop signs too.
>
> Silly? You bet. But thinking that you can selectively "decopyright"
> is just as silly...
>
> Rarely do I give legal advice on the net, but here is one time I will.
> Never, never use a work that contains some sort of "decopyright" symbol
> or language, unless you know that your use is allowed under "fair use",
> or unless you have a license that you have negotiated with the author,
> and you know the author is the true author.

     First of all it is a great honor getting a response from you to a message of mine because you send extremely informed and capable responses on several discussion groups. I think that both Mr. Riolo and I have in mind a term to describe a situation, rather than a legal term that implies rights and privledges that can be defended in a court of law. Thus for example, all of the works published before 1923 are decopyrighted. If I say to you that this message is decopyrighted and I am wrong, then I have misused the term as well as caused anyone who believes me legal difficulties. Mr Riolo may disagree with me on this point and the term is after all his clever invention, but I think what was in mind here was a simple one word way to describe a situation rather than using a whole phrase such as "this email message has been placed by me in the public domain and can be freely copied by anyone wishing to do so." "This message is decopyrighted" is a bit easier to handle for us lazy folk. <g>

Thank you again for your response.

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne[_at_]astro.temple.edu Received on Tue Apr 20 1999 - 15:01:51 GMT