@@ -414,23 +414,23 @@ domain. Second, due to aggressive lobbying by the entertainment industry,
the ``exclusive Right'' of copyright, that was supposed to only exist for
``Limited Times'' according to the USA Constitution, appears to be infinite:
simply purchased on the installment plan rather than in whole. Thus, we must
assume no works of software will fall into the public domain merely due to
the passage of time.
Nevertheless, under US law it is likely that the typical
Nevertheless, under USA law it is likely that the typical
disclaimers of copyright or public domain dedications we see in the
Free Software world would be interpreted by courts as copyright
abandonment, leading to a situation in which the user effectively receives a
maximum grant of copyright freedoms, similar to a maximally-permissive
Free Software license.
The best example of software known to truly be in the public domain is software
that is published by the US government. Under
that is published by the USA government. Under
\href{http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105}{17 USC 101 \S~105}, all
works published by the USA Government are not copyrightable in the US.
works published by the USA Government are not copyrightable in the USA.
\subsection{Why Copyright Free Software?}
If simply disclaiming copyright on software yields Free Software, then it
stands to reason that putting software into the public domain is the
easiest and most straightforward way to produce Free Software. Indeed,