Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Jeremy Portzer <jeremyp AT pobox.com>]

On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 14:51, Corey Wilson wrote:
> James Dasher wrote:
> 
> >
> > I'd be interested in hearing how open source apps especially provide 
> > grounds for techniques and methods in the public domain.  E.g., if 
> > someone had open-sourced a "one-click shopping" technique, would 
> > Amazon.com have been able to drive Barnes & Noble off the Web?
> >
> If the open-source application had existed in the public domain for a 
> period of time before the patent application was filed (usually one 
> year), it would invalidate the one-click shopping patent.  In that case, 
> Amazon would have had no ownership of the technology.  As for how open 
> source licensing, e.g., GPL, etc., affects the classification of the 
> software as in or out of the public domain, I am not sure.

GPL'd software is most certainly *NOT* (capital N-O-T) in the public
domain.  Works in the public domain do not have copyright, and do not
have any restrictions on their use.  GPL software is copyrighted, and
indeed, the whole legal force behind the GPL is because of copyright
law.  The GPL adds a number of significant restrictions to the use of
GPLed software -- the main one being that licensees must make available
source code of all changes to the software, if that changed software is
distributed).  Such restrictions would not be possible if it were public
domain, as public domain by definition means no restrictions on use.

Even the "BSD license," which is more open than the GPL, is not public
domain, because it is defining certain distribution and usage privileges
given by the copyright holder, and the copyright holder retains the
copyright.

IANAL, and I could be off in the details, but I am an OSS advocate and
all OSS advocates should understand the basics of this stuff IMO.

Jeremy

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| Jeremy Portzer        jeremyp AT pobox.com      trilug.org/~jeremy     |
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