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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