Re: Public domain (was: timezone.el patterns in emacs 19.34)

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

joda@pdc.kth.se (Johan Danielsson) writes:

> The concept `public domain' does not exist in many parts of Europe.
> You can not not (double negation) have copyright to your work. If the
> author is not known it is usually the one that published the work that
> gets the copyright.

To elaborate a bit: In Norway, for instance, there is no concept of
"copyright".  Instead we have something that may be translated to
"originator's rights".  The differences between originator's rights
and Berne convention copyright is mainly that one can never lose the
right to be identified as the creator of a work.  I can sign over just
about anything related to the usage of the work, but I'm still the
originator of the work.  I can't sign that over to anyone else.  And
there is no public domain. 

One consequence of this is that organizations that buy stuff like
logos from artists don't own the logo outright, and don't have the
right to alter a logo they've bought without the permission of the
artist.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen