[Clipart] More ‘Public Domain’ Whims

[Aijalyn Kohler]

On Tuesday 24 March 2009 09:13:27 Jochen Staerk wrote:
> Hi
> > I don’t have a clue why he thinks you could do this?
> I'm not an expert but when you publish something in license 1 and
> anybody gets it, unless the license is restricted in time you can
> perpetually use it under this license.
> 
> So I would say he published his work 1 in license 1, then the identical
> work 2 in license 2, which does not revoke license 1 from work 1 if
> somebody still has a copy. If he can prove that you downloaded it after
> he changed license (=work 2, which is identical to work 1) he has a point.
> 

If it was released into the Public Domain, this example isn't analogous as the Public Domain is not a license. When files are released into the Public Domain, they can't be taken back.

If the files were originally released under the Free Art License (as he seems to suggest), then he can relicense it, but I would think he could only revoke License 1 if the original terms provided for that.

-Aijalyn Kohler