Re: copyright status of text and code snippets on lua-users.org

[Tim Mensch <tim-lua-l@...>]

On 9/4/2011 6:52 AM, Philippe Lhoste wrote:
> Personally, I would consider any code snippet released in the wild
> (Wiki, forum, mailing list, etc.) without explicit license attached[1]
> to fall on the public domain (again, this has been argued about
> recently, notably about if PD means anything), ie. can be used freely.

Lack of a copyright notice doesn't affect whether the material in
question is copyrighted in any country (including the US) that has
signed on to the Berne Convention. In fact, it may not even be possible
to relinquish your copyright on a work: "The opinion on the OSI license
approval discussion list is that it's no longer possible to release your
work to the public domain in the USA. Technically speaking, the
copyright always stays with you even if you don't claim it anywhere. " [1]

Having a notice just allows you to sue for more money, or rather,
prevents the person distributing the work in question from claiming
"innocent infringement", which reduces potential damages. [2]

Tim

[1] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PublicDomain
[2]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_States#Copyright_notices