# Can the legal holder of copyright place a work in the public domain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2007, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136 "2007-12-07T07:35:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/21 "2007-12-07T20:10:45Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Well, sure. Who wants responsibility for orks? 😃 [/QUOTE] grumble. . . grumble . . . pdfs . . . harder to shamelessly copy . . . grumble. . . feh ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/22 "2007-12-07T20:20:48Z")
Hey, orks are great substitutes for guard dogs. And you don’t have to feed them, since they’ll just eat mailmen, door-to-door salesmen and joggers. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/23 "2007-12-07T22:25:24Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] **Exapno Mapcase** is correct: under current U.S. copyright law, a work is under copyright from the moment of its creation. [/QUOTE] With at least one exception. Works by US government employees, as part of their employment, is not subject to copyright and is public domain. The IEEE copyright transfer form [located here](http://www.ieee.org/web/publications/rights/copyrightmain.html) has a special place for government employees. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/24 "2007-12-08T00:37:51Z")
**Gfactor** , thanks for the link to that interesting article. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/25 "2007-12-08T00:59:37Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] **Gfactor** , thanks for the link to that interesting article. [/QUOTE] I’d say it gave a more compelling argument for the use of endnotes than ending copyright, however. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/26 "2007-12-08T01:05:42Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] **Gfactor** , thanks for the link to that interesting article. [/QUOTE] To be candid, I haven’t read much more of it than I quoted. I’ll have to try to get to it this weekend. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/27 "2007-12-08T14:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=Exapno Mapcase] Well, sure. Who wants responsibility for orks? 😃 [/QUOTE] You left out “rotections” – I’m guessing it’s a quote from Scooby Doo. ETA: If you click on the the I-with-an-arrow symbol, you can copy from a PDF file to your heart’s content. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136/28 "2007-12-08T15:50:05Z")
[QUOTE=DesertDog] ETA: If you click on the the I-with-an-arrow symbol, you can copy from a PDF file to your heart’s content. [/QUOTE] I know how to copy from a pdf. The letters got deleted when I tried to clean up the copy by fixing hard returns and stuff like that. If I hadn’t, the excerpt would have looked as it does below. Notice that “works” and “protections” each begins a line. 12 U.S. DEPT. OF COMMERCE, INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE TASK FORCE, WORKING GROUP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE: THE REPORT ON THE WORKING GROUP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS 16 (1995) (“Those creators who wish to dedicate their works to the public domain may, of course, do so notwithstanding the availability of protections under the Copyright Act.”); Robert A. Kreiss, Abandoning Copyrights to Try to Cut Off Termination Rights, 58 MO. L. REV. 85, 92 (1993) (“[A]bandonment of copyright can be done explicitly or implicitly.”) (footnotes omitted); Henry H. Perritt, Jr., Property and Innovation in the Global Information Infrastructure, 1996 U. CHI. LEGAL F. 261, 292 n.119 (“Copyright owners may relinquish their property interest and put their works in the public domain.”); see also 2 Goldstein, [[cite to most recent edition]] 217, § 9.3 (describing how abandonment functions as a defense to copyright infringement); 4 Nimmer & Nimmer, [[cite to most recent edition]] § 13.06 (same). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-legal-holder-of-copyright-place-a-work-in-the-public-domain/429136.md?page=1)