Re: [sqlite] Re: philosophy behind public domain?

Andreas Rottmann wrote:
> Florian Weimer <fw@...> writes:
> 
> 
>>* D. Richard Hipp:
>>
>>
>>>Public domain just seemed the easiest way to go.
>>
>>It is, until you want to incorporate a contribution from someone who
>>can't give up his copyrught in a binding way.  How do you handle
>>contributions from Europe, especially Germany?  Or hasn't that
>>happened yet?
>>
> 
> This is a point that always stroke me about "public domain": There is
> no such thing as "disclaiming copyright" in Europe (or at least
> Germany and Austria).

This is a rather sticky point.  It's unlikely that someone who 
unofficially "disclaimed copyright" would willingly change his mind 
afterwards, but that assumes ideal circumstances.  In the Real World, 
people sometimes die, get divorced, or get sued by people they owe money 
to.  It seems to me that if someone from a country that doesn't 
recognize voluntary relinquishment of copyright (and, AFAIK, that's most 
countries) contributes code to SQLite or something similar, his heirs, 
ex-spouse, or creditors could end up with a proprietary interest in part 
of the code.  Not good.