Re: request-tracker3: licence problem
On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Branden Robinson wrote:
> Let's keep in mind that the FSF has a copyright assigment policy as
> well. It's very, very similar to BSP's, as I understand it, except
> that whereas the FSF is the assignee of the copyright and grants
> back to the original copyright holder a no-holds-barred license,
> BSP's submission policy has you granting them a no-holds-barred
> license, and retaining the copyright yourself.
The other difference is that the FSF requires you to physically sign
over the copyright and your employer to have a copyright waiver on
file before changes are incorporated into a work whose copyright is
owned by the FSF.
The important part here (besides the legal steps necessary to
forestall SCO like litigation suceeding) is that the FSF doesn't
assume a implicit grant of rights to a submission sent to them. They
actually have to get the copyright holder's permision to use the work.
I don't really see a problem with the above, and I don't think there
would be a problem if BSP would require the same with the copyright
holder physically licensing the work to BSP with an unlimited license
instead of signing over the copyright.
I just heavily dislike licenses that seem to have automatic licensing
(or copyright assignemnt) as a part of the license. That is, where if
you disagree with licensing or assigning your copyrighted works at
terms more lenenient than the original license you can only do so in
violation of the license.
Don Armstrong
--
If it jams, force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
-- Lowery's Law
http://www.donarmstrong.com
http://rzlab.ucr.edu
Reply to: