copyright notice

[Larry Campbell]

> For those who may choose to use it, I offer the following copyright notice.
> ... 
> User Beware: I am not a lawyer and do not pretend to know all the legal
> ramifications of the wording of my proposal.  I am submitting this also to
> net.legal in case someone there would care to enlighten us free programmers.
> **************************************************************************
> *                      ShareWare Copyright Notice                        *
> *               Copyright I.M. Author.    month day, year                *
> * In recognition of the contributions of those who have gone before, and *
> * to encourage those who will follow, the attached software is placed in *
> * The Public Domain.    /s/  I. M. Author  month day, year               *
> **************************************************************************
> W. M. McKeeman            mckeeman at WangInst
> Wang Institute            decvax!wanginst!mckeeman
> Tyngsboro MA 01879

Would people please just bother to consult a law book, or even a dictionary,
before misinforming the entire net?  I quote from the American Heritage
Dictionary:

	public domain.  ... 2. The status of publications, products,
	and processes that are not protected under patent or copyright.

This copyright notice is a joke.  "Copyright" and "public domain" are
antonymous!  If something is copyrighted, it cannot be in the public
domain.  I may do anything I like with a public domain work:  copy it,
modify it, sell it.  If you want to prevent these things you must avoid
like the plague the term "public domain".

Here (paraphrased from memory) is a notice I have used in the past on some
of my software:

   Copyright (C) 1986 by J. Q. Programmer.  This software may be freely
   copied and distributed for noncommercial purposes provided that this
   notice remains intact.  Commercial use of this software requires my
   prior written permission.

Note the absence of the poisonous phrase "public domain".
-- 
Larry Campbell                                 The Boston Software Works, Inc.
ARPA: maynard.UUCP:campbell at harvard.ARPA       120 Fulton Street
UUCP: {harvard,cbosgd}!wjh12!maynard!campbell  Boston MA 02109