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Re: Group Copyright



On Fri, 20 Jul 2001, Joseph Carter wrote:

>On Fri, Jul 20, 2001 at 05:20:09AM -0600, John Galt wrote:
>> >> 2) the group/readme
>> >
>> >If there is no legal problem with this, it's better (because it's less of
>> >a hassle!)
>>
>> I'm thinking it could be construed as a DBA.
>
>?

The group name would be as if a partnership filed a Does Business As.

>
>> >Don't you still have to notify everyone?  What if some people cannot be
>> >contacted?  Must notice be served in any particular manner or does an
>> >email count?  (This is what worries me in the first place..)
>>
>> Written notice (basically court service).  As far as "cannot be
>> contacted", if publishing in the paper's enough for service on the
>> Defendant, I'm sure it should be good enough for a potential Plaintiff.
>
>I don't have access to newspapers in foriegn continents.  ;)  But I get
>the idea.
>
>
>> >Anyway, I'm not sure everyone is going to be interested in taking that
>> >risk, and I'm not sure I blame them.
>>
>> No, I can't either.  But I'd be remiss if I didn't at least tell you about
>> it.
>
>Well supposedly SPI already exists for this purpose, however SPI and
>Debian both cower in fear from the mere potential of a cease-and-desist
>letter because someone got the bright idea that one might be possible
>under a silly US currently law being actively challenged which most legal
>scholars have already condemned as unconstitutional.  Given that,

Ask Dmitriy Sklyarov how ineffectual it is....

>At this point, I don't have any dillusions that SPI has the desire nor the
>ability to defend itself from a $5 small claims suit, let alone initiate
>legal proceedings on behalf of someone else in defense of the GPL.
>
>> >> 5) assign rights to a trusted third party or a third party that all agree
>> >> should recieve them.
>> >
>> >And this is even riskier.
>>
>> True enough.  The risk is usually outweighed by the intangibles associated
>> with the third party.  If they aren't free software zealots, perhaps some
>> other charity like the local church or something.
>
>I can just envision being able to declare it sinful to violate the GPL.
>It would throw a few BSD guys I know into fits.  ;)  Definite potential
>there just for the sake of watching them sputter about the evils of GNU
>for an hour or so.  =D

Most of the BSD types that care about the BSD/GPL thing already think that
the GPL advocates have a holier than thou attitude anyways...


-- 
The Internet must be a medium for it is neither Rare nor Well done!
<a href="mailto:galt@inconnu.isu.edu";>John Galt </a>



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