Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000 21:06:08 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: bright@wintelcom.net (Alfred Perlstein) Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: stolen script? Message-ID: <200010022106.OAA10683@usr05.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <20001001105526.E27736@fw.wintelcom.net> from "Alfred Perlstein" at Oct 01, 2000 10:55:26 AM
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> There's a guy distributing our /etc/security "ported to Linux" he > has GPL'd the script and not included src/COPYRIGHT with this > distribution. > > http://halliday.wl.vg/scripts/ > > I don't want anyone to flame the guy to death, I just want to know > if this is ok or not? My understanding is that it's ok to GPL > our code so long as the original copyright remains intact. > > So two questions: > So can he GPL it? > Must he add the src/COPYRIGHT? The code itself can not be GPL'ed, although he can make an aggregation license that's GPL. Even the two clause Berkeley License does not permit him to license the code to other on terms other than that of the original authors. In order for this to apply in his case, he must prepare a set of things, distributed _as_ a set, and be able to demonstrate a better than 10% (minimally) provenance for the works he is agregating (e.g. one can not take vanilla FreeBSD, slap a GPL on it, and call that an aggregation). The 10% number is the legal number established by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Coart of Appeals, an Appellate Court, which has made binding case law to this effect. If he is smart, he will not trust the 10% number, since going to court and finding it to be 9.95% would certainly be a bummer. From a risk perspective, most companies set this number between 20% and 25%, depending on how risk averse their lawyers are. He also _must not_ remove copyright statements from any software, or his license to use said software is void, since the only thing granting him any use of the code at all is the license in the copyright statement on the file. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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