--- Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)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
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