Re: "all rights reserved" and GPL

[ajdlinux@gmail.com]

On 6/28/07, Shriramana Sharma <samjnaa@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello. In the license header of a source file being licensed under the
> GPL, there must be a copyright notice. Sometimes I see the usage of "All
> rights reserved" in that notice:
>
> // Copyright (C) 2007, Company X. All rights reserved.
>
> 1) Is the usage of "All rights reserved" appropriate when a file is
> being licensed under the GPL, or in fact under whatever license?
>
> 2) What is the purpose of its usage?
>
> 3) If it is that the licensor wants to say: "Any rights I have not
> explicitly given you, you do not have"?
>
> 4) If so, would it not be necessary, strictly speaking, to say so, i.e.
> "All rights regarding this work, unless explicitly granted to the
> licensee, are reserved by the licensor"? "All rights reserved" seems to
> be inappropriate, if not incorrect, when in fact all rights are *not*
> reserved.
>
> 5) Is it *advisable* to use such a terminology in a copyright statement
> in a file licensed under the GPL?


"The requirement to add a notice became obsolete and essentially
deprecated on August 23, 2000, as every country that was a member of
the Buenos Aires Convention (which is the only copyright treaty
requiring this notice to be used) is also a member of the Berne
Convention which requires protection be granted without any formality
of notice of copyright."

All rights reserved has pretty much no legal effect now.


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