http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap2.html
While not specifically mentioning public domain, it does state: (d) Transfer of Ownership.- (1) The ownership of a copyright may be transferred in whole or in part by any means of conveyance or by operation of law, and may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession. (2) Any of the exclusive rights comprised in a copyright, including any subdivision of any of the rights specified by section 106, may be transferred as provided by clause (1) and owned separately. The owner of any particular exclusive right is entitled, to the extent of that right, to all of the protection and remedies accorded to the copyright owner by this title. paragraph 1 seems to cover the placement of a work in the public domain when it says "by any means of conveyance" which would include, to my non-lawyer mind, a simple statement to that effect in place of the notice claiming copyright. That would be a means of conveyance. But other than that I can't cite any text in the law itself which covers placing a work in the public domain. Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote: > At 07:38 AM 6/18/02 -0400, David H. Bailey wrote: > >>I don't know how copyright laws work in your country, but you can >>expressly place the music in the public domain in the United States by >>placing a statement to that effect in place of the normal copyright notice. >> > > Can you cite the law on this? There was a significant discussion on one of > the forums last year, and it appeared that abandonment of copyright or > legal public domain status was impossible to establish. No one could find a > true abandonment clause in the law. That is, you were covered by copyright > whether you wanted to pursue the right or not, and a public domain notice > was more a courtesy announcement than a legal one. > > Dennis > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
