Joint Authorship Re: More fun with Title 17 USC
--- Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org> からのメッセ
ージ：
> On Thu, May 29, 2003 at 03:02:58AM -0400, Anthony
> DeRobertis wrote:
> > (Sec. 101):
> > ''joint work'' is a work prepared by two or more
> authors
> > with the intention that their contributions be
> merged
> > into inseparable or interdependent parts of a
> unitary whole.
> [...]
> > So, I wonder, how many open-source works qualify
> as joint works?
>
> Probably not many. After all, a lot of people write
> Free Software with
> the notion that their contributions will merged into
> many different
> distinct and separable works. That's the sort of
> thing that the
> copyleft concept is designed to promote.
>
There are a variety of cases interpreting "joint author,"
but your intutions are correct to consider the "intention"
to make a joint work and the interdependency of the
contributions. I recal more literary case law, but will
look around to see what case law exists interpreting
software contribution, if it's of interest..
To date, I'm not aware of any FOSS related cases, but
perhaps SCO, Novell and IBM will provide something for us
in this area? :>
--
James Miller
jamiller@yahoo.co.jp
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