From: Lourens V. <lo...@ra...> - 2002-09-23 11:00:52
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On Monday 23 September 2002 12:03, Joerg Schilling wrote: > Preface: I am sorry, but it seems that you don't know much about > =09Copyright issues :-( Many of your statements are completely > =09wrong and none of your mails from the last night has been > helpful. > > For a decent discussion on this topic it is important that we use > correct verbalizations. Unfortunately, the English language is > not very precise here.... > [...explanation of _German_ copyright system...] I believe we need to make a clear distinction between the German=20 copyright laws and the American copyright laws. Unfortunately,=20 there seem to be some major differences here, and given what you=20 wrote I'm not even sure if the GPL makes sense at all in the=20 context of German (and probably other European) copyright law. > From: "Mike A. Harris" <mh...@op...> > > [...] > >That's a good thing or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint. > >Some people view it as a bad point, because even if you write a > >program and GPL it, you cannot legally change the license on > > your own code, or multiple license it, unless all code > > contributors have agreed to the relicense/multi-license, or > > have assigned their copyright completely to you. > > Wrong! > > If there is an author who owns the authorship rights for the work > (like it is true for me with e.g. cdrecord), this author is the > only person who may decide on authorship right issues. > > As libscg is a major contribution from me to the cdrdao project, > I would be able to put a veto on this. But as I already did allow > cdrecord to be linked with libedc it is obvious that I don't use > my veto right here. That's what I mean. The whole idea of the GPL is that if you put=20 your software under GPL, then everyone will be able to use it as=20 long as the terms of the GPL are satisfied. If the original author=20 can still veto anything that happens with the code it can't be free=20 software as in the FSF definition. Perhaps the FSF should be notified and/or asked about this? Seems to=20 me like it might be a major problem. Lourens --=20 GPG public key: http://home.student.utwente.nl/l.e.veen/lourens.key |