alphaQuad wrote:
> I am no lawyer but doesn't a release without use stipulation constitute a public
> domain item?

  In international copyright agreements, as well as in the local
copyright laws of most countries *all* works are automatically under
copyright without the need to specify it explicitly. No license means
you can't use that work, period.

  As for releasing under "public domain", few countries even have that
notion in their law at all, except in the form "50 (or so) years after
the death of the author it becomes public domain" and "all government
documents are in the public domain unless specifically stated
otherwise". Usually those two cases are the *only* ones where works fall
in public domain. Most copyright laws don't have the concept of the
author "releasing something to public domain" at all. "Public domain" is
synonym for "has no copyright", which is often not supported by law.
Pieces of work will have copyright no matter what the author says.
  What the author can and should do is to release it under a completely
permissive usage license. That doesn't remove the copyright from the
work, however.

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