Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 23:54:34 -0400 From: "Thomas M. Sommers" <tms2@mail.ptd.net> To: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Sun's web site Message-ID: <399CB37A.CF1A19BA@mail.ptd.net> References: <200008172319.SAA84418@nospam.hiwaay.net>
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David Kelly wrote: > > "Thomas M. Sommers" writes: > > Companies probably prefer BSD (meaning the license) to GPL when they are > > using other people's code, but when they are opening their own code, the > > might well prefer GPL. Managment is probably worried that if they use > > BSD on their code, some other company might make a profit from it, which > > would get management in trouble with their stockholders for essentially > > giving away a valuable asset. If they use GPL however, then they are > > guaranteed that they will be able to use whatever modifications the > > other company is using to make its profit. > > Notice under GPL you do not give up the copyright on the software. You > still own it and control it. Presumably even the mods others (anonymous > contributors who don't go to lengths to claim their own copyright on the > revisions) put into it. What I'm saying is the copyright holder is still > free at a later date to jump back in with a non-GPL version including > developments during its GPL phase. YMMV, depends on how good your > lawyers and public relations people are. Only if you hold the copyrights to the contributed code. Under current copyright law, you automatically have a copyright on your creations, even if you don't put a notice on them. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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