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On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Greg KH <gregkh@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> Talk to a lawyer if you disagree with this. The area of copyright law, |
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> and software, is very well defined (with one exception of the "major |
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> change to add your copyright, and even then, there's an agreed apon |
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> standard to follow). Because of that, I disagree that you think this is |
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> something that is unknown at all. |
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I realize that it is illegal to remove a copyright line from a work |
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without permission, just as it is illegal to copy a work in the first |
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place without permission. The question is whether the GPL gives such |
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permission, whether it is possible to give such permission, or at |
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least whether you can give somebody this permission and then sue them |
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for following through. |
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That's my main concern here. Can somebody say, "sure, go ahead and |
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remove my name from the copyright line" and then sue you for doing it? |
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> |
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> But I'm not going to be able to change your mind :) Please get the |
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> Foundation to write up the rules apon which Gentoo developers need to |
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> handle the copyright mark, so that there's no disagreement as to what to |
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> do, in any type of situation. |
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I'm not curious enough that I'd be willing to spend money on this. If |
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somebody wants to change my mind they're welcome to provide me with a |
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reference for a relevant case. I'm sure there are endless cases of |
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bad things happening to people removing copyright lines, just as there |
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are endless cases of people being sued for copying files. I'm |
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concerned with cases where something bad has happened to somebody who |
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removed a copyright line after being given permission to do so, and |
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cases dealing with copyleft licenses and whether they grant this |
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permission. |
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I suspect the wisest course of action for the Foundation will be to |
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take the conservative approach. However, I do not believe that this |
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is because this is legally required. It is simply a matter of not |
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being wise to spend all that donated money fighting to prove that this |
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is the case. After all, even if I'm completely right, that doesn't |
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mean that somebody can't sue me. Winning a legal case in the US is a |
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very expensive proposition. I'm sure that would be the advice of any |
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lawyer we retained. All that said, a formal policy would be a good |
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idea. |
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Rich |
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