PE> It is this that I am trying to avoid, and I thought making
PE> it PD enabled this.

RS> Nope, it doesnt, Public Domain, means what it says, its in the Public
RS> Domain, and thats a different thing to being copyrighted. And if you
RS> think about it for a moment, your proposition doesnt make sense at
RS> its most fundamental, because if you could really do what you want
RS> to do, public domain would be meaningless. Whatever the original
RS> author of the codes intention was with the public domain code could
RS> be nullified by the act changing two words and its not longer public
RS> domain. The law doesnt allow that. For that damned good reason.

PE> Nope, the way I "thought about it for a moment" is that the original
PE> (byte for byte) copy of the code is free for anyone to use.

Yes, it certainly is. BUT they cant get copyright to that code whatever
they do. THATs where the problem arises.

PE> Any DERIVED version is theirs.

NOT by say changing two lines in a 10K line lot of code it aint.
That does NOT give them copyright over all the stuff they started
with. Because its NOT their work, its the work of someone ELSE.

PE> If anyone copies THEIR version, they will get their head stomped in.

NOT the code they got from someone else they wont. THEY dont own
that stuff they got from someone else so they cant stomp on anyones
head. If they dont like that consequence of the copyright law, thats
just too bad, they will have to write the whole thing thing themselves
if they want to be able to copyright the whole thing.

PE> If anyone copies the ORIGINAL version, there's no problem.

If someone uses the code in the other 9998 lines of code its ALSO
no problem, coz THEY dont own ANY of that 9998 lines of codes.
Because they DIDNT WRITE those lines of code. Or buy the copyright
from whoever did. Its not theirs to OWN, so they cant stomp on anyones
head if some chooses to use it.

PE> It is only HIS version that would cease to be public domain by the
PE> addition of two words.

The original 9998 lines of code dont stop being the work of the original
author. They are STILL the work of the original author. So the adder of
the 2 lines of code can whistle dixie for all the rights they might claim
they have over the other 9998 lines of code. They have NO rights to those
9998 lines of code. None, zero, nada, ziltch.

PE> Public domain would remain meaningful under my scenario.

Nope.

--- PQWK202