Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 19:02:22 +0200 From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org>, Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, Dirk Myers <dirkm@teleport.com>, freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD, .Net comments - any reponse to this reasoning? Message-ID: <20010703190222.D40756@lpt.ens.fr> In-Reply-To: <3B41F0E4.B55E6937@softweyr.com>; from wes@softweyr.com on Tue, Jul 03, 2001 at 10:20:52AM -0600 References: <20010630174743.A85268@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010630173455.T344@teleport.com> <20010701032900.A93049@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010701132353.W344@teleport.com> <20010702152649.A18127@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010702180222.A2667@hades.hell.gr> <20010702161055.A18543@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <20010702172448.I4896@lpt.ens.fr> <3B41F0E4.B55E6937@softweyr.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Wes Peters said on Jul 3, 2001 at 10:20:52: > > A complication for open source projects: if you have accepted contributions > of code (bug fixes, new features, etc) from others, and have not specified > that all contributions become your property, you may not be able to issue > the code under a new license without getting the permission of all of the > contributors. This is why the FSF asks for copyright assignment for the GNU > tools; it allows them to control (prevent) the issuance of the code under > other licenses. Actually, if multiple people hold copyright, a license change can be made only if all copyright holders agree. If the FSF holds the copyright to a part of the code, that's enough to prevent license changes, in theory. The official reason for the copyright transfer policy is they think it is easier to enforce legally if the copyright status of the program is simple. (That is, it is easier in court to represent one copyright holder than a hundred. And there may be a legal problem with the latter, for example proving in court that all of them agree with you.) See, for example, http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl-faq.html#AssignCopyright http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/why-assign.html - Rahul. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20010703190222.D40756>