darknation

Is there a copyright on that thing? No? Kiss it goodbye!

So by "release" do you mean into the public domain?

Just because America's copyright law is shit doesn't mean the rest of the world has shit copyright law.

Don't know what the deal with Scotland is, but in Australia any work that's published in any format automatically gains a copyright on it.

That is a standard tenet of all international copyright conventions, US and Scotland included. As soon as a work is recorded in some tangible form (recorded, electronic, written, etc.), then it is immediately subject to copyright protection, if applicable.

And unless rights are specifically waived, they are retained.