IANAL, but...

On Fri, 22 Jun 2001, Dan Michaels wrote:

> 1 - Can the public legally "re-sell" public domain information for profit?

You betcha, that's what "public domain" means.  Of course "the public"
can't sell anything - who would get the money?  Public domain doesn't mean
free, it means "not owned exclusively by any person or entity".

If I'm wrong, there are a lot of Bible publishers in BIG TROUBLE.

> 2 - Is a private organization the same as the public?

If by that you mean can a private organization do the same as #1, well,
there is no way a "public" can sell anything.  It would have to be either
an individul or some other legal entity selling it, so yes.

> 3 - Can the public legally re-sell information if Bob has a copyright
>     notice attached to what he makes available to piclist?

Not that information.  Unless of course Bob has agreed to permit this.

> 4 - Should we start posting things to piclist with a little copyright
>     notice on the bottom?

I won't.  What you do is up to you.  If I don't want my code or ideas to
become public domain, I don' share them in a public forum.  I will try to
help out wherever possible and post code I have developed that I want to
share with the world.  If I post it to the PIClist, I don't have any
illusions that no one can swipe my idea and use it somewhere else.  What
does it matter to me if they use it in a book, or in a box they build for
a paying customer, or in their new IR-trigered dog door opener?

There is some really, really neat code I have come up with for customers
that no one but my customer and I will ever see...  that's life.  On the
other hand, there is some I wrote on my own and re-use in customer
applications, with the understanding that it's my code, not theirs.  Of
course, I have the luxury of being able to be very selective abot who
becomes a customer.

Dale
--
A train stops at a train station.  A bus stops at a bus station.
On my desk I have a workstation...

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