> but placing something to public domain is easily interpreted as explicit "please plagiarize" I've never heard of anyone interpreting public domain as any suc

> but placing something to public domain is easily interpreted as explicit "please plagiarize" I've never heard of anyone interpreting public domain as any such thing. Whenever I get an idea from the SQLite source code for example, I have never for even a single moment ever considered plagiarizing it. If public domain were really treated as you say, then movies and TV shows about Sherlock Holmes wouldn't begin (or end) with "Based on the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." They'd just say, "Sherlock Holmes was conceived, written and created by Foo Johnson." But of course nobody does that, because plagiarism is unethical.