Re: Debian and copyrights
On Sunday, Jun 29, 2003, at 07:17 US/Eastern, Baptiste SIMON wrote:
Hi people,
I'd like to know how debian has relsolved the copyright question. In
fact,
anyone which is releasing his software under something like GPL or
LGPL is
able, if he is still holding the code copyright, to release a next
release
under any other license.
Yep. Debian doesn't do anything about it: We will still be able to
distribute the current release under the free license; improve the
current release under the free license; etc. No bigger deal to Debian
than if the upstream author decides not to work on the program anymore.
I'd like to prevent this kind of problem without giving copyright to
FSF
(because, I'm not the alone on my project).
You could sign a contract with the other authors promising not to
distribute the work or works derived from it under any license except
the GPL/LGPL/etc.
This wouldn't stop you and all the other authors from agreeing to
change the license later, of course, but it would grant any one of you
veto power over such a decision.
You could also contract with someone to provide the work and all
derivative works you may create from it and distribute a copy of the
source, under the GPL, for a fee. The for a fee is important, otherwise
there would be no consideration, and the contract would likely be
unenforcable.
note: I've not subscribed to your mailing list, so I would be pleased
if
you can add my to Cc:. Thanks in advance.
cc'd.
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