Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!nsc!chuqui From: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Newsgroups: net.emacs Subject: Re: Commercial vs. Public Domain Message-ID: <2980@nsc.UUCP> Date: Sat, 13-Jul-85 21:36:01 EDT Article-I.D.: nsc.2980 Posted: Sat Jul 13 21:36:01 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 01:21:41 EDT References: <969@sdcsvax.UUCP> <1633@ecsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) Organization: The Dreamer Fithp Lines: 21 Summary: In article <1633@ecsvax.UUCP> dgary@ecsvax.UUCP (D Gary Grady) writes: > >Evidently Jane Penner Silks needs to read up on US copyright law; once >something is in the public domain it is owned by the public (by >definition, in fact), so it cannot be removed from the public domain >except, perhaps, by a special act of Congress. Oh, I DO so love beating dead horses.... True, something placed in the public domain cannot be removed from it (even by a special act of Congress) but that doesn't mean that enhancements to that public domain software are also placed in the public domain. If you want to use RMS's original PD emacs, great, but the stuff gosling did to it he did under copyright, and you can't use that part of Emacs without permission. chuq -- :From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach {cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA Admirals, extoll'd for standing still, Or doing nothing with a deal of skill. -- William Cowper