--- Lars Aronsson lars@aronsson.se wrote:
--- Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
An easy example of a true 0% chance could be a
corporate
publication from a company that has ceased to
exist through
bankruptcy.
Birgitte SB wrote:
I have never heard of something "defaulting" to
the Public
Domain because of the dissolution of the copyright
owner. If
things "defaulted" the Public Domain we would not
have the
existing situation with Orphan Works.
Many lawyers in Europe will tell you that the public domain "doesn't exist". I wouldn't agree with this fundamentalist view. But whether you call it public domain or not is more a play with words than a practical reality. The problem with orphan works is not the kind of situation Ray described above. The problem with orphan works is that you *don't know* whether there is a copyright holder that might sue you. In Ray's example you *know* that nobody is around who can sue you, and so you can go ahead and publish without any risk. These are two different situations.
I understand what you are saying; but "no risk of being sued for copyright infringement" is not the same as "no copyrights exist". And if copyrights exist it can't be free content according to the WMF licensing resolution. I am not against WMF changing that the standard. I am only pointing out what the standard is.
Birgitte SB
____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping