On Thu, 2003-03-20 at 16:35, Poor, Edmund W wrote:
Jimbo, Cunctator, do you know whether an author can
simply announce something like the following?
* "I hereby license the following text under the GPL."
It depends on the author's contract with his publisher.
Publishers generally try to get exclusive rights to publication; in a
sense, while the author may "own" the copyright, he doesn't control it.