Re-using copyrighted code
Steven D'Aprano
steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info
Sun Jun 9 20:34:01 EDT 2013
On Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:07:57 +1000, Chris Angelico wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 6:32 AM, Mark Janssen
> <dreamingforward at gmail.com> wrote:
>> That's not entirely correct. If he *publishes* his code (I'm using
>> this term "publish" technically to mean "put forth in a way where
>> anyone of the general public can or is encouraged to view"), then he is
>> *tacitly* giving up protections that secrecy (or *not* disclosing it)
>> would *automatically* grant. The only preserved right is authorship
>> after that. So it can be re-distributed freely, if authorship is
>> preserved. The only issue after that is "fair use" and that includes
>> running the program (not merely copying the source).
>
> (Digression follows.) That was true back in the late 1800s in the US,
> but was not true in England at that time, and was solved in a
> unification of copyright laws and treaties. There was a huge issue over
> the copyright of the opera "HMS Pinafore"
No, it was not true. Mark is saying that publishing a work automatically
revokes all the privileges granted by copyright, which is ridiculous.
There has never been a time where copyright only applies to secret works
that aren't published.
The HMS Pinafore issue -- and similarly for the works of Mark Twain, and
any other British author who had work published in the US -- was that
their copyright in Britain was not recognised, or legally enforceable, in
the USA.
--
Steven
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