From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/44612 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Jorgen Schaefer Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Copyright/license issues (was: [COMMIT] sign & encrypt changes) Date: 02 May 2002 20:04:09 +0200 Sender: owner-ding@hpc.uh.edu Message-ID: References: <87adrjse42.fsf@alum.wpi.edu> <87wuunyrl4.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <87u1pqbsl3.fsf@alum.wpi.edu> <87bsby4oy8.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <87lmb2336u.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <87662631te.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> <87wuum1lwl.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1020362728 3802 127.0.0.1 (2 May 2002 18:05:28 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 18:05:28 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from malifon.math.uh.edu ([129.7.128.13]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1 (Debian)) id 173KxM-0000z6-00 for ; Thu, 02 May 2002 20:05:28 +0200 Original-Received: from sina.hpc.uh.edu ([129.7.128.10] ident=lists) by malifon.math.uh.edu with esmtp (Exim 3.20 #1) id 173Kwb-0006Jc-00; Thu, 02 May 2002 13:04:41 -0500 Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Thu, 02 May 2002 13:04:56 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: from sclp3.sclp.com (qmailr@sclp3.sclp.com [209.196.61.66]) by sina.hpc.uh.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id NAA16992 for ; Thu, 2 May 2002 13:04:44 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (qmail 5273 invoked by alias); 2 May 2002 18:04:25 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 5268 invoked from network); 2 May 2002 18:04:24 -0000 Original-Received: from rzaixsrv2.rrz.uni-hamburg.de (134.100.32.71) by gnus.org with SMTP; 2 May 2002 18:04:24 -0000 Original-Received: from burse.uni-hamburg.de (die.burse.uni-hamburg.de [134.100.252.249]) by rzaixsrv2.rrz.uni-hamburg.de (8.11.0/8.11.0) with ESMTP id g42I4Ia40804 for ; Thu, 2 May 2002 20:04:18 +0200 Original-Received: from forcix.burse.uni-hamburg.de (forcix.burse.uni-hamburg.de [192.168.42.38]) by burse.uni-hamburg.de (8.10.2/8.10.2) with ESMTP id g42I4Hk07189 for ; Thu, 2 May 2002 20:04:18 +0200 Original-Received: from forcer by forcix.burse.uni-hamburg.de with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 173Kw5-0002Rw-00 for ; Thu, 02 May 2002 20:04:09 +0200 Original-To: ding@gnus.org In-Reply-To: <87wuum1lwl.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> Original-Lines: 50 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2 Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:44612 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:44612 Florian Weimer writes: > The copyright owner might claim that it never released the source > under the GPL, and try to extract royalties or damages from the FSF. > A valid assignment contract makes this extremely unlikely, but without > such a contract, you are in the mercy of the copyright owner to some > extent. Also, only the copyright holder may sue someone over a copyright infringment. So the FSF can only defend a program if it is indeed the copyright holder. Quoting the document of the FSF on this issue: | Project GNU has to be careful to obey intellectual property laws, | even though these laws are wrong and people generally should share | useful information without hesitation, because we are in the | public eye. | | This means that if you want to contribute software, you have to do | something to give us legal permission to use it. There are four | ways this can be done: | | * Assign the copyright to the Free Software Foundation. This is | what we prefer because it allows us to use the copyright law to | prevent others from hoarding modified versions of the program. | | * Keep the copyright yourself and give us a suitable nonexclusive | license. It will then be up to you to prevent any unauthorized | hoarding of modified versions; we will be unable to act. (This | alternative is impractical for us if the use for your work is to | be merged into a preexisting GNU program.) | | * Keep the copyright and release the program yourself under the | GNU GPL. (This alternative too is impractical for contributions | to a preexisting GNU program.) | | * Put the code in the public domain. Then there is nothing to stop | hoarding of modified versions, but we can still use the program | in GNU. | | Most of these alternatives require a signed piece of paper to make | it happen. HTH, -- Jorgen -- ((email . "forcer@forcix.cx") (www . "http://forcix.cx/") (irc . "forcer@#StarWars (IRCnet)") (gpg . "1024D/028AF63C"))