On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 2:16 PM, Marcello Perathoner <marcello@perathoner.de> wrote:
Robert Cicconetti wrote: What???
Are you saying everybody can steal everybody's else's files if they contain only PD material?
If you *publish* PD material, everybody can take it and re-use it as they see fit. To publish something means to make it available to everybody.
If you keep PD material on a workgroup server which is not accessible to the public at large and somebody grabs this material without your permission, then the material is *stolen* and you can prosecute them. (Provided you can prove that it was indeed your file, which should not be difficult because the scanno pattern is practically a watermark.)
We're not talking about computer trespassing; the discussion is in regards to publicly available public domain material, not locked up on someone's personal computer or server. PG has procedures for establishing whether a random etext found online is public domain work, and allowing people to republish it at PG. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_Confirmation_How-To Random scannos do not establish a new copyrightable work, nor does sweat-of-brow. (Under current US law, etc etc.) R C