Re: Golgotha source release: crack.com closing down!

[Patrick Draper <pdrap@yahoo.com>]

---Christian Reiniger <warewolf@mayn.de> wrote:

> I think as soon as someone makes modifications to it, she can
> effectively choose any license for her version/branch/derivation/...
> without affecting the original sources and other derivations from the
> original.

Public domain means that the owners give up all claim to the copyright.
It would be perfectly legal for me to take all the code they release,
change nothing, and then re-release it under the GPL.

 
> I'm not sure about that, but I'm absolutely sure that nobody (except
the
> crack.com ppl) can change the license for the original Golgotha
source -
> thus it stays public domain forever ;)

Public domain status cannot be revoked. The original authors could
take the public domain code and release it again under a different
license, just like anyone else can. However, there will always be a
copy of that public domain code out there for someone else to take.

It's just a matter of referencing. If you release the code under the
GPL, and someone else mentioned that they downloaded your copy and
changed it, then their work would also be GPL'ed. If someone else only
referred to the public domain code as a prior work, even though the
public domain code and the GPL code are identical, then the code based
on (referring to) the public domain code could be release under any
license.

Public domain will not lock up all versions of code so that they
cannot be GPL'ed. But, it will allow people to branch off versions
that are not Open Source. For those who are religious about Open
Source (TM), this is a bad thing. But realistically it will not hinder
development of any GPL code.

==

Patrick Draper
Phoenix, Arizona
Check out Free Trek! 
www.concentric.net/~pdrap/free_trek/free_trek.shtml


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