On (14 Jun 97) Hugh Noland wrote to Eddy Thilleman...
 HN> This brings up a point that has bothered me for some time.  Suppose
 HN> source code has been published somewhere--say in a magazine such as
 HN> PCMAG, or maybe in a text book.  Does this make it in the public 
 HN> domain or not?
It does NOT.  There's really only one way to put something in the public
domain, and that's to include a notice saying that it's public domain.
This applies in all countries that are signatories to the Bern
Convention, which is most of the world.  Some countries don't do much to
enforce it, but that's a whole different story.
There _is_ one other way for things to be public domain, though it's
only rarely applicable to source code.  If something was published long
enough ago with no copyright notice, it was officially public domain in
most countries.  How long ago is "long enough ago" depends on the
country - in the U.S. it was long enough ago that you _could_ run into
code that was public domain by this route, but not a great deal of code
you'll see was written that long ago.
OTOH, you might see it more often if you regularly deal with, say,
FORTRAN or COBOL.
    Later,
    Jerry.
... The Universe is a figment of its own imagination.
--- PPoint 1.90
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