On 6/11/07, David Mestel david.mestel@gmail.com wrote:
If you're not the sole author, then you can't release someone else's work into the public domain.
Or indeed under any other licence.
Public domain is not a license.
Why? Let me get this straight. Say my friend and I write a book called "Big Cats" which we intend to publish under the GFDL. I write some sections, my friend writes some sections, some sections I write and then he modifies, some sections he writes and then I modify, etc. Then we start printing copies. We attach the GFDL, print, bind, whatever. Do we include a history section? What would the history section look like?
"Title: "Big Cats", Year: 2007, Authors: Anthony DiPierro and Joe Bloggs, Publishers: Anthony DiPierro and Joe Bloggs".
I suppose you could do that, but the GFDL doesn't require it. Take a look at http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ AFAICT there is no history section.
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A joint work is "a work prepared by two or more authors with the intention that their contributions be merged into inseparable or interdependent parts of a unitary whole." (USC title 17, section 101) I'd say that describes a typical Wikipedia article, though I admit one could argue against it.
Anthony