From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 25117 invoked by uid 1002); 21 Aug 2003 05:17:13 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-dev-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 13012 invoked from network); 21 Aug 2003 05:17:12 -0000 Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 01:16:37 -0400 From: Paul To: Jon Portnoy Cc: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Message-ID: <20030821051637.GF26885@squish.home.loc> References: <20030821040916.GE26885@squish.home.loc> <20030821041723.GA2653@cerberus.oppresses.us> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030821041723.GA2653@cerberus.oppresses.us> Subject: [gentoo-dev] Re: Why should copyright assignment be a requirement? X-Archives-Salt: 78a0cee9-4b15-4897-9fd8-78db5ab9d6cd X-Archives-Hash: ae5a0bf79c6f1dfe53845e7f15a8b9de Jon Portnoy , on Thu Aug 21, 2003 [12:17:23 AM] said: > With regards to copyrights, it's necessary for us to own copyright on > ebuilds in order to defend our intellectual property. If we (Gentoo > Technologies) don't own copyright on ebuilds (and other pieces of > Gentoo), we have no legal leg to stand on if someone (for example) > attempts to put a more restrictive license on that piece of intellectual > property. > > In short: if we don't own copyright, we can't defend ourselves. > > -- > Jon Portnoy > avenj/irc.freenode.net Hi; Thankyou for your kind, swift response; Maybe its my paranoia, but while I _might_ be willing to assign copyright to the FSF, Im not sure a company with a distribution deserves such trust. Witness Caldera... Once you have the GPL, you have a license. I could relicense an ebuild to, say some *BSD based thing, or some commercial spin-off if I wanted (if I still hold copyright), but that doesnt affect "Gentoo Technologies, Inc." right to use the ebuild under the GPL. It just affects their ability to completely control the 'intellectual property'. In short, Im hearing that its protective leverage for Gentoo Technologies, Inc., an entity whose status I am not currently sure of... Paul set@pobox.com -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list