From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 25 09:34:19 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E734910656C9 for ; Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:34:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from johans@stack.nl) Received: from mx0.stack.nl (mj0.stack.nl [IPv6:2001:610:1108:5010::187]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F96F8FC1B for ; Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:34:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from johans@stack.nl) Received: by mx0.stack.nl (Postfix, from userid 65534) id AC8E52B3703; Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:34:18 +0100 (CET) X-Spam-DCC: : X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.5 (2008-06-10) on toad.stack.nl X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.2.5 X-Spam-Relay-Country: Received: from mud.stack.nl (mud.stack.nl [IPv6:2001:610:1108:5011:230:48ff:fe12:2794]) by mx0.stack.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id D81282B364D; Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:34:16 +0100 (CET) Received: by mud.stack.nl (Postfix, from userid 801) id CF61C11458; Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:34:16 +0100 (CET) Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:34:16 +0100 From: Johan van Selst To: Luigi Rizzo Message-ID: <20090325093416.GA66389@mud.stack.nl> References: <20090325084722.GC98685@onelab2.iet.unipi.it> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="ZGiS0Q5IWpPtfppv" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090325084722.GC98685@onelab2.iet.unipi.it> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.19 (2009-01-14) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:50:57 +0000 Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: does Copyright on source files expire ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:34:22 -0000 --ZGiS0Q5IWpPtfppv Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Luigi Rizzo wrote: > I said yes, but then I was wondering what happens if the > person listed is not responding or not reachable anymore: > does copyright on source code expire, and if so, when ? Yes, copyright expires. When it expires exactly depends on local legislation. Generally this is a number of years after the death of the longest living author. I believe in the US copyright generally expires 70 years after the death - or if the copyright is owned by a company, then it expires 120 years after creation (or 95 years after publication). There is a lot of documentation about copyright details available on the internet - but keep in mind that laws change frequently. So it's probably safe to assume that all code used in FreeBSD is still covered by copyright and all licenses granted by the authors still apply (untill one day the copyright expires). P.S. As with all legal stuff, there are always exceptions to the rule: specific cases and local legislation may differ a lot. Ciao, Johan --ZGiS0Q5IWpPtfppv Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iEYEAREIAAYFAknJ+pgACgkQaOElK32lxTuuUQCgjyWGg66zeYOv6FEBZOBXu9C5 bDYAn0xIkGZsRTukTbQLqehF5e0/i0+L =J6Ad -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --ZGiS0Q5IWpPtfppv--