Copyright and License

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <000101bfb78d$a61f3cc0$452d153f at tim>,
Tim Peters <tim_one at email.msn.com> wrote:
>>[Mark Hammond]
>>> [And a question I dont want to raise - what really does this "copyright"
>>> mean, in the open source world?  It appears we are saying "we assert
>>> copyright, but never intend actually enforcing it".  The words of the
>>> tim-bot still echo (paraphrased) - "if possible, put it in the public
>>> domain" :-)  As I said, I dont want to raise it :-]
>
>[Aahz Maruch]
>> The primary purpose is to prevent someone else from asserting copyright.
>
>And what if they do?  If the original is public domain, anyone can continue
>using it, modifying it, etc.  Everything I've released in Python has been
>explicitly public domain, and there's been no downside.

This is not an area of copyright law that I have any familiarity with,
but IIRC, the problem is that someone could theoretically prevent you
from releasing improved versions of your code if they assert copyright.

Side note: you always get copyright these days unless you explicitly
release something into the public domain.  (Yes, Tim, I know you know
that.)
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