I’m wondering if anyone knows why there appears to be no copyright on openSUSE 12.3?
I say there’s no copyright, because at the bottom of the License information, displayed on one of the first GUI based panels during the install, the copyright is shown as ending in 2011.
You say wrong.
Copyright automatically belongs to the author on creation, and lasts until reassigned by the author or is expired by law (usually some time after the author’s death or 50+ years). The copyright notice you see refers to the layout and contents of that page or collection of pages. The dates are the dates of creation and/or modification. According to your logic every book, newspaper and film would be out of copyright on the date of publication.
Since I feel you were rather unpleasant in your comments, which seem to suggest that you like to argue rather than engage in any meaningful discussion, I feel it’s only fair if I respond in kind.
Maybe in Scotland it’s 50 years. In the US, in some cases, it’s actually more like 70 years after the Author’s death. However, it’s somewhat more complicated than that, there’s all sorts of fine print in US copyright law.
I’ve used books published in a variety of countries, I’ve seen films created in a variety of countries, and I’ve never yet seen a book or a film with a copyright notice that included a specific day of the year. So even according to what you illogically claim is my logic, the copyright on a book or film could often expire at the end of the year specified in the copyright notice, not as you absurdly suggest, on the date of publication. lol!
According to any real logic, your statement implies that openSUSE 12.3 ( or it’s license ) hasn’t been modified since 2011, since that was the most recent year in the range of years in the copyright notice at the end of the license. I wonder if openSUSE 12.3 was even in the planning stage in 2011 ( it’s possible ).
Had you put any effort into interpreting my post, you might have guessed that my question was intended in a rather “tongue in cheek” fashion.
NNTP users: this thread will now be closed and moved to Chit-Chat in 10 minutes, please refrain from posting.
Moved and opened for posting.