[Ilugc] [OT] GPL and public domain software license.
- From: ramanraj.k@xxxxxxxxx (Ramanraj K)
- Date: Wed May 3 22:48:40 2006
Rahul Sundaram wrote:
On Wed, 2006-05-03 at 21:30 +0530, Ramanraj K wrote:
Rahul Sundaram wrote:
All works enter into the public domain after the statutory period
expires, but if an author desires to immediately place his work in the
public domain, it needs to be done under a license.
If you put it under any kind of license, its not public domain anymore.
In India, under Section 30 of the Copyright Act, the owner of a
copyright may grant any interest in the right by license, and the author
has every right to grant his work to public domain under a license.
A copyright license given you by is a authorization for others to use
your otherwise proprietary copyrighted content. Disowning all such
rights puts your work under public domain. There is no such thing as a
license under public domain. Only public domain declaration or
dedications
I am afraid, it would be difficult to cure your confusion, but I would
give it a last try. Anyway, I hope it encourages authors here to place
their works in the public domain, using any of the following mechanisms
appealing to them.
Now, like I said earlier, the author may make a unilateral public domain
declaration, which could be traced to the enabling provisions under
Section 30 of the Copyright Act, which gives authors the right to make
grants as they please. Copyright vests easily upon original works by
authors without cumbersome registration, and it could be relinquished
just as easily by a simple public domain release license.
If the above step is totally unacceptable to someone, then there are
others provisions that come to the rescue of authors eager to place
their works in the public domain.
The author may assign the work in favour of the government, and in most
jurisdictions that automatically places the work in public domain.
Government funded projects are often treated as public domain works,
like for instance, in the US. But note that in India, Government works
usually enjoy copyright for 60 years unless it is explicitly otherwise
granted, and so one may have to include clear terms in the assignment
placing the work in public domain with immediate effect.
That apart, authors may also relinquish all or any or their rights under
Section 21 of the Copyright Act which provides:
<quote>
21. Right of author to relinquish copyright.-
(1) The author of a work may relinquish all or any of the rights
comprised in the copyright in the work by giving notice in the
prescribed form to the Registrar of Copyrights and threupon such rights
shall, subject to the provisions of sub-section (3), cease to exist from
the date of the notice.
(2) On receipt of a notice under sub-section (1), the Registrar of
Copyrights shall cause it to be published in the Official Gazette and in
such other manner as he may deem fit.
(3) The relinquishment of all or any of the rights comprised in the
copyright in a work shall not affect any rights subsisting in favour of
any person on the date of the notice referred to in sub-section (1).
</quote>
However quaint and old fashioned, Section 21, framed in the era without
internet where the public could never instantly access works of authors,
could still be pressed into service to bring in works to public domain
after notice to the Registrar and publication in the Official Gazette.
A "relinquishment" of "all or any of the rights" under Section 21 is
perhaps not exactly the same as making a "public domain declaration"
under Section 30 of the Copyright Act, but it makes no much difference
to the public as long as there is a legally valid dedication.
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