From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.general/44740 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Per Abrahamsen Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.general Subject: Re: Copyright/license issues (was: [COMMIT] sign & encrypt changes) Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 15:50:01 +0200 Organization: The Church of Emacs 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> <3cx9mgs1.fsf@mail.ru> <6uelgp4fvv.fsf@zork.zork.net> <87hellas5h.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 1020779513 31616 127.0.0.1 (7 May 2002 13:51:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 13:51:53 +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 1755Ng-0008Dp-00 for ; Tue, 07 May 2002 15:51:52 +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 1755Me-0003vU-00; Tue, 07 May 2002 08:50:48 -0500 Original-Received: by sina.hpc.uh.edu (TLB v0.09a (1.20 tibbs 1996/10/09 22:03:07)); Tue, 07 May 2002 08:51:04 -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 IAA07559 for ; Tue, 7 May 2002 08:50:50 -0500 (CDT) Original-Received: (qmail 7560 invoked by alias); 7 May 2002 13:50:30 -0000 Original-Received: (qmail 7555 invoked from network); 7 May 2002 13:50:30 -0000 Original-Received: from sheridan.dina.kvl.dk (130.225.40.227) by gnus.org with SMTP; 7 May 2002 13:50:30 -0000 Original-Received: from zuse.dina.kvl.dk (zuse.dina.kvl.dk [130.225.40.245]) by sheridan.dina.kvl.dk (8.9.3/8.9.3/Debian 8.9.3-21) with ESMTP id PAA08674 for ; Tue, 7 May 2002 15:50:03 +0200 Original-Received: (from abraham@localhost) by zuse.dina.kvl.dk (8.9.3+Sun/8.9.3) id PAA17720; Tue, 7 May 2002 15:50:01 +0200 (MEST) X-Authentication-Warning: zuse.dina.kvl.dk: abraham set sender to abraham@dina.kvl.dk using -f Original-To: ding@gnus.org X-Face: +kRV2]2q}lixHkE{U)mY#+6]{AH=yN~S9@IFiOa@X6?GM|8MBp/ In-Reply-To: <87hellas5h.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> (Florian Weimer's message of "Mon, 06 May 2002 23:22:02 +0200") Original-Lines: 24 User-Agent: Gnus/5.090006 (Oort Gnus v0.06) Emacs/21.1 (sparc-sun-solaris2.8) Precedence: list X-Majordomo: 1.94.jlt7 Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.general:44740 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.gnus.general:44740 Florian Weimer writes: > All the assignments the have received from me are illegal in the > strict sense of the word: as a German, I cannot assign copyright, only > ea usufruct of a copyright (commonly called exploitation rights). Is that still the case? Danish copyright law was changed a few years ago to allow transfer of "all rights", making it much more similar to US law. I assumed this was some kind of EU standardization. In any case, I doubt my assignment on "future work" would be valid in a Danish court, it is too generic. So I might be able to stop distribution of Emacs temporarily in Denmark. I guess the free software community would survive ;-) > But if someone illegally assigns copyright in the majority of the > cases (e.g. if there is a third party having rights to the code), > that's not the problem of the FSF, but of the poor developer. It could become the FSF problem if the rightful owner tried to stop distribution. But it might protect them from having to pay damages, they are clearly in good faith. As I said before, it is all a question of multiple lines of defence.