Re: [gentoo-dev] Are "Copyright 1999-20xx Gentoo Foundation" headers bogus?

[Rich Freeman]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 7:10 PM, Matt Turner <mattst88@g.o> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 4:07 PM, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o> wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 6:34 PM, Matt Turner <mattst88@g.o> wrote:
>>> In order to contribute to GNU projects, one must sign a copyright
>>> assignment statement.
>>>
>>> Gentoo doesn't have anything similar as far as I'm aware, which makes
>>> me question the legitimacy of "Gentoo Foundation" copyrights.
>>>
>>> What is the story?
>>>
>>
>> The story of what?
>>
>> Are you asking whether they're legally binding?  You'd have to sue
>> somebody to find out, because as far as I'm aware the matter is
>> untested in court.  I think you could make an argument that
>> voluntarily placing that header on your work is an assignment of
>> copyright.  You could also argue otherwise.  A court would decide who
>> wins.
>
> I'm asking whether we're just cargo-culting it along, or if we have
> (had) some kind of system in place to assign copyright. I think Ciaran
> answered: we used to but not anymore.
>

As I said, you could debate whether the present system already assigns
copyright.  I don't think it is ideal.  It certainly isn't backed by
any court decisions that I'm aware of.  That doesn't necessarily mean
that it wouldn't be upheld if it did go to court.  There is really no
way to be certain without trying it.

But, it is better to rely upon methods that are already proven in
court over ones that have yet to be proven.  I'm not disputing that.

-- 
Rich