[open-bibliography] Orphan data

[William Waites]

On Thu, 01 Mar 2012 18:30:36 -0800, Karen Coyle <kcoyle at kcoyle.net> said:

    > don't think so. It's either yours or not yours, I don't think
    > that you can license something unless you've got some legal
    > right to it, and I don't think that a claim can establish that
    > right. (OK, it worked for conquerers and the entire manifest
    > destiny across this continent, but I think someone might call
    > you out if you tried it today.)

I like this thread.

Ownership is not something magic, it comes from the ability to enforce
some sort of exclusive right of use or occupation. That's literally
backed up by the threat of force. Often we don't see that played out
in places like Europe and North America these days because if I go and
occupy, you'll call the police and they'll happily use force to remove
me -- that's what police are for. That's so ingrained as to be obvious
so it just isn't done.

Similarly with copyright, they'll take you, physically, and put you in
jail and shoot you if you try to escape if you try to go too far in
flaunting the system and step on someone with the will and clout to
insist on their rights' toes.

Is there any likelihood at all that in this situation *anybody* is
going to pursue things to a level even approaching that? Most likely
not. The worst that will happen is someone might write a blog post
saying they disagree.

So I agree with Mark. Just assert ownership so far as to explicitly
put the thing in the public domain. If someone comes out of the
woodwork and disagrees it might make for an interesting
discussion. I'd wager even that won't happen.

Don' worry! :)

Cheers,
-w
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