Re: Info Problem
On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 17:59:09 +0000,
Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> wrote in message
<[🔎] 20031209175908.GA18541@riva.ucam.org>:
> On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 05:33:46PM +0100, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 13:58:15 +0000,
> > Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> wrote in message
> > <[🔎] 20031209135815.GC15485@riva.ucam.org>:
> > > On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 04:58:26PM -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > > > On a more practical note: copyright would pass to the estate
> > > > and heirs. It's possible (not necessarially easy) to get
> > > > assignments in this case.
> > >
> > > Yeah. The thought has occurred to me, but it seems rather
> > > tasteless to go and ask. In practice my assessment is that it's
> > > vanishingly unlikely to become an actual problem (and if it does,
> > > I'll just remove all copyrightable pieces of code he wrote), so
> > > again I've gone for the easy road.
> >
> > ..I disagree: It _is_ appropriate to approach the heirs and ask,
> > informing them of the 2 alternatives, removal of his code (just
> > like we're gonna do with any SCO code), and the heirs giving
> > their permission to let the dead man's code work survive under
> > the GPL and copyright law. Chances are very good they will
> > consider what he would have wanted them to do.
> >
> > .._not_ asking, I find _less_ appropriate, because chances are,
> > the heirs may feel we take liberties with _their_ copyright.
>
> Eh? The code is GPL. The person in question was perfectly aware of
> this and licensed his code the same way. *No* liberties are being
> taken!
.._we_ know that. His _heirs_, does not neccessarily know, understand,
or appreciate, this fact. Which again _may_ cause such bad feelings.
..myself, I prefer to err on the side of caution, such bad feelings
_can_ be prevented, both by removal of dead mens code, and
by asking the heirs. Removal and rewriting, is of course the
safest approach, but forces "re-inventing the wheel", I like to see
re-innovation happen on technological merits alone, not just
because someone dies.
> The discussion with Karsten is about the problem of getting copyright
> assignments to the FSF for the purpose of making it a GNU project,
> which is purely hypothetical; it's something I have no intention of
> actually doing.
..nevertheless we oughtta think thru this, we will all die, so we wanna
secure our copyrights so our work _remains_ available, and ours,
FSF is a good tool to enforce our deads copyright.
> Please read the thread a little more carefully.
.. ;-)
--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-)
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.
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