Re: Ian's DFSG2 would harm Debian and Free Software
On Thu, 3 Dec 1998, Richard Braakman wrote:
> Dale Scheetz wrote:
> > I see it as a very bad idea to require mutable source. My reasons stem
> > from the fact that the copyright is the legal authority for the license,
> > and a license that allows the original work to be modified weakens the
> > power of the copyright (as it no longer applies to the modified work).
>
> This is simply not true. Copyright applies to all derived versions of
> a work.
Only if the author of the changes agrees. The only one who can create a
copyright for a work is the author. Unless the contributor accepts the
original author's copyright as applying to his work as well, the
contributors work does not come under the original copyright.
>From my point of view, the only way you can distribute a patch to a
copyright work is to release the contents of that patch to the original
author by allowing the new work to come under the original copyright. This
is, in effect, what the GPL requires in this reguard.
>
> (I'll see your lawyer friend, and raise you one FSF lawyer and one
> Netscape lawyer.)
>
They will all go "up against the wall" when the revolution comes ;-)
Luck,
Dwarf
--
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Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
e-mail: dwarf@polaris.net Tallahassee, FL 32308
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