On 09/02/07, Andre Engels <andreengels(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'm sorry, but that does fly right in the face of
existing laws - searches
on both Wikipedia and Google tell me that legal abandonment of copyright
only occurs when one explicitly confers material to the public domain. If
you don't hear anything from the copyright holder in a reasonable term, that
can be implicitly an acquiescence to your usage of the material. It does not
remove any rights they have against others.
FWIW, UK copyright law recognises a defence of acquiescence, but you
need to show that the other party was *aware* of it as well as taking
no steps to stop it. This dates from 1906, but a ruling was made as
recently as 1996 - there, the copyright holder became aware in early
1993 that use beyond the license was being made of its material, and
the judge held that a defence of acquiescence could be made out from
at least the middle of that year.
(I am unsure what that translated to in practice - I'm trying to dig
up the reports, but suspect it was something along the lines of "you
can only sue for the first couple of months of infringing use")
It's a defence (like fair-use) for infringement, though, *not* a
release. And, of course, simply making your infringement public is not
the same thing as them knowing about it - you'd have to somehow prove
they were aware.
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk