samiam@moorecad.com wrote:
Only since the Berne convention was adopted. Pascal-P predates the Berne convention (in the USA, I guess it depends on where and which treaty you are talking about, Berne dates back to 1886)[1], it was written in 1972. It was also openly distributed to anyone that asked for it. Steve Pemberton published it without problems (or agreement with the original authors) in his book, and made it available on his web site, again without restrictions (and I asked the author about it personally).
AFAIK, Wirth went back to Switzerland in 1968, i.e. before it was written, where the Berne convention was already in force since 1886.
You could also ask Wirth about it, but I don't suppose it would make a difference, since he didn't personally write it, his students did.
This adds to the complication if we don't even know who the authors are. Just hypothetically, suppose one of them now works for Borland, Microsoft or another such company, and they later decide to take an opportunity to crush competition (if they ever see it as such), or just for a PR stunt to display free software authors as "pirates" (not unheard of, see the SCO debacle and other indicents).
Berne convention:
[1] This Convention shall apply to all works which, at the moment of its coming into force, have not yet fallen into the public domain in the country of origin through the expiry of the term of protection.
I guess a lawyer might interpret it so that, because it did not fall into the public domain *through the expiry of the term of protection*, it does apply.
Of course, I'm no lawyer, but I'd caution against using it as the base for any free software project without a clear (non-)copyright notice.
Frank