Python Cannot be Killed

[Ben Finney]

On 18 Jun 2003 20:06:07 -0700, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> You can still copyright your specific version of the work

Public domain works and copyrighted works are exclusive.  A work is
either subject to an author's (or, these days an "owner's") copy rights,
or it is not.  Only works without any copy rights reserved are in the
public domain.

> in the same way that Disney's specific version of the public-domain
> story of "Snow White" is protected by copyright, but Snow White itself
> remains in the public domain, free for anyone else to use, without
> needing Disney's permission.

It's unclear what you mean by "Snow White itself" here.

If you mean "the essential parable of Snow White, regardless of what
specific form it takes", then copyright has no jurisdiction over that at
any time; anyone can re-tell a story in their own words, even based on a
copyrighted work, and they have created a new work which itself is
subject to copyright terms.  Thus, copyright has nothing to say about
some abstract Snow White, only about concrete works.

If you mean "the original Brothers Grimm story of Snow White", that is a
specific work which happens to be in the public domain because current
copyright law does not reserve copy rights for works written before a
certain date.  If the Brothers Grimm wrote it in the USA yesterday, or
fifty years ago, it would be as locked-up and all-rights-reserved as
Disney's version currently is, unless they to specific efforts to place
the work in the public domain.

Copyright law deals with specific, concrete expression of ideas.  The
public domain refers only to specific, concrete works that are no longer
(or never were) subject to an author's copy rights.

-- 
 \          "Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better |
  `\                                       time."  -- Henry L. Mencken |
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