From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Apr 6 15: 8: 6 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from harrier.prod.itd.earthlink.net (harrier.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.12]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B61237B419 for ; Sat, 6 Apr 2002 15:08:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from pool0254.cvx22-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([209.179.198.254] helo=mindspring.com) by harrier.prod.itd.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 16tzHt-0001MA-00; Sat, 06 Apr 2002 15:08:02 -0800 Message-ID: <3CAF7FB9.3259C392@mindspring.com> Date: Sat, 06 Apr 2002 15:07:37 -0800 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Sony} (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Chip Morton Cc: FreeBSD Chat Subject: Re: Abuses of the BSD license? References: <200204051922.06556@silver.dt1.binity.net> <3CAE7037.801FB15F@optusnet.com.au> <3CAEA028.186ED53E@optusnet.com.au> <3CAED90B.F4B7905@mindspring.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20020406124622.019bfdc8@threespace.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Chip Morton wrote: > At 08:01 AM 4/6/2002, Ian Pulsford wrote: > >Remember when someone makes a piece of code it has no > >licence, you can't do anything with it until you have permissions from > >the author. > > I thought that software licenses were meant to *restrict* your freedoms > with someone's work, not *grant* them. > > In other words, if you create some great unlicensed code and leave a > printout lying on the table at McDonald's, what law am I breaking by > scooping up the printout and making billions with your creation? I thought > this was exactly why most people guard as-yet-uncopyrighted works so fiercely. You are breaking Copyright law, in any nation which is signatory to the Berne Copyright Convention. Specifically, the Berne convention alters Copyright law to include an implicit Copyright on all unplubished works, without needing the notice to be explicitly affixed. See: http://www.wipo.org/about-ip/en/about_copyright.html#copyright_regulated http://www.wipo.org/treaties/ip/berne/index.html There's no such thing as an "as-yet-uncopyrighted work". This fact actually made it more dangerous for authors to place work in the public domain, since, as it has their copyright, whether they want it or not, it becomes their responsibility. What people are normally protecting by not leaving papers at McDonalds are trade secrets and proprietary business information (product direction, etc.). -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message