web.4559f466341a4ab73976a8750@news.povray.org...
> I'm guessing most povray code published to websites like
> povray.text.scene-files, Povray Objects Collection or even the IRTC are in
> the public domain.  They were published without a copyright attached and 
> in
> some of them it's even impossible to determine any way to contact the
> original author (no email or out-of-date).  Besides, people posting to
> these places seem to actually WANT to contribute to povray in a certain
> sense or else they wouldn't publish it.  I may be wrong...

It's a complicated topic, but in a nutshell copyright is automatic, except 
for certain works, like official publications in certain countries, that are 
directly in the public domain. Copyright expires after a certain period of 
time, but POV-Ray isn't old enough for scene files to enter automatically in 
the public domain... Actually, for an individual, releasing something in the 
public domain is not straightforward either: one can always put a disclaimer 
and wave his/her rights (this is what I did for the scene/image I uploaded 
for the Wikipedia article on POV-Ray), but this does not mean that the 
disclaimer will be legal everywhere.

So, no, POV-Ray code is practically never in the public domain. However, as 
people have been more aware of these issues lately, recent code often has a 
clear license attached (one from Creative Commons for instance).

G.

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