[gentoo-dev] Re: Why should copyright assignment be a requirement?

[Jon Portnoy]

On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 01:16:37AM -0400, Paul wrote:
> Jon Portnoy <avenj@g.o>, on Thu Aug 21, 2003 [12:17:23 AM] said:
>
> > With regards to copyrights, it's necessary for us to own copyright on
> > ebuilds in order to defend our intellectual property. If we (Gentoo
> > Technologies) don't own copyright on ebuilds (and other pieces of
> > Gentoo), we have no legal leg to stand on if someone (for example)
> > attempts to put a more restrictive license on that piece of intellectual
> > property.
> >
> > In short: if we don't own copyright, we can't defend ourselves.
> >
> > --
> > Jon Portnoy
> > avenj/irc.freenode.net
>
> 	Hi;
>
> 	Thankyou for your kind, swift response;
>
> 	Maybe its my paranoia, but while I _might_ be willing
> to assign copyright to the FSF, Im not sure a company with
> a distribution deserves such trust. Witness Caldera...

Maybe, but since we license it under the GPL, on the off chance that 
somebody suddenly inherited all of Gentoo's intellectual property and 
wanted to relicense it, old versions would still be under the GPL.

>
> 	Once you have the GPL, you have a license. I could
> relicense an ebuild to, say some *BSD based thing, or some
> commercial spin-off if I wanted (if I still hold copyright),
> but that doesnt affect "Gentoo Technologies, Inc." right
> to use the ebuild under the GPL. It just affects their ability
> to completely control the 'intellectual property'.

I'm talking about situations where a fork or some other entity wants to 
change the license: legally speaking, they _cannot_ change the license 
unless they're the copyright holder. If the contributor owns the 
copyright rather than Gentoo, only the contributor can begin legal 
proceedings against the infringing entity.

I'm specifically not referring to situations where a contributor wants 
future versions of their ebuilds to be released under a different 
license.

>
> 	In short, Im hearing that its protective leverage
> for Gentoo Technologies, Inc., an entity whose status I am not
> currently sure of...
>
> Paul
> set@×××××.com

Daniel has repeatedly publicly committed to going nonprofit, but going 
from a for-profit to a non-profit is a time-consuming process.

-- 
Jon Portnoy
avenj/irc.freenode.net

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