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Jon Portnoy <avenj@g.o>, on Thu Aug 21, 2003 [01:46:16 AM] said: |
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> On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 01:16:37AM -0400, Paul wrote: |
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|
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> > Maybe its my paranoia, but while I _might_ be willing |
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> > to assign copyright to the FSF, Im not sure a company with |
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> > a distribution deserves such trust. Witness Caldera... |
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> |
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> Maybe, but since we license it under the GPL, on the off chance that |
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> somebody suddenly inherited all of Gentoo's intellectual property and |
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> wanted to relicense it, old versions would still be under the GPL. |
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> |
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> > |
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> > Once you have the GPL, you have a license. I could |
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> > relicense an ebuild to, say some *BSD based thing, or some |
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> > commercial spin-off if I wanted (if I still hold copyright), |
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> > but that doesnt affect "Gentoo Technologies, Inc." right |
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> > to use the ebuild under the GPL. It just affects their ability |
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> > to completely control the 'intellectual property'. |
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> |
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> I'm talking about situations where a fork or some other entity wants to |
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> change the license: legally speaking, they _cannot_ change the license |
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> unless they're the copyright holder. If the contributor owns the |
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> copyright rather than Gentoo, only the contributor can begin legal |
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> proceedings against the infringing entity. |
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> |
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|
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Hi; |
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|
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Im having a hard time reconciling your first paragraph |
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with the second. First you point out that my rights under |
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the GPL wouldn't be affected by someone aquiring Gentoos IP, |
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then you claim Gentoo needs be able to protect against 'license |
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changing'. Probably you mean license violation? |
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If, say I had an ebuild in there, with my copyright |
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held by me, and someone started using it in some way that |
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violated my license (the GPL), then yes, I would be the one |
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who would have to take legal action. At that point, I have |
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choices. I could, for example, assign copyright to the FSF, |
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or Gentoo. I could ignore it, etc. I couldnt (as you |
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state) take away anyones ability to use it under the terms |
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of the GPL. |
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If I assign copyright to Gentoo, I have no more |
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choice. Someone could aquire all their 'IP', and make all the |
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ebuilds future modifications closed and proprietary. |
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In other words, if Gentoo has the copyright, they |
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have the choices about taking legal action, or inaction. |
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It gives them a product they have control over. I am |
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unconvinced that this is ultimately in the users benifit. |
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|
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Paul |
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set@×××××.com |
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|
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|
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-- |
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