[Foundation-l] Stroop report

[Lars Aronsson]

> --- Ray Saintonge <saintonge at 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.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se