From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 22300 invoked by uid 1002); 21 Aug 2003 06:58:12 -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 30227 invoked from network); 21 Aug 2003 06:58:12 -0000 Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2003 01:00:40 -0600 From: Daniel Robbins To: Jon Portnoy Cc: Troy Dack , gentoo-dev@gentoo.org, rms@gnu.org Message-ID: <20030821070040.GA4889@inventor.gentoo.org> References: <20030821040916.GE26885@squish.home.loc> <20030821041723.GA2653@cerberus.oppresses.us> <33324.203.10.231.229.1061441473.squirrel@tkdack.bpa.nu> <20030821050925.GA3277@cerberus.oppresses.us> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="17pEHd4RhPHOinZp" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030821050925.GA3277@cerberus.oppresses.us> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Organization: Gentoo Technologies, Inc. Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Why should copyright assignment be a requirement? X-Archives-Salt: d1ca6b57-f8d8-4cc0-8072-551c6c444369 X-Archives-Hash: 60630a3e1b5ba40c49fa65daadd45fbd --17pEHd4RhPHOinZp Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Aug 21, 2003 at 01:09:25AM -0400, Jon Portnoy wrote: > > Would it not be possible for copyright to be assigned to Gentoo and the > > author of the ebuild? >=20 > That's what we needed information from Daniel's lawyer about. I've been trying to get people to keep their names in the copyright line for over a year, but no one has really started doing it. To my knowledge, it is better to have multiple official copyright holders for GPL code than just a single copyright holder. I would like all our ebuilds to have a copyright like this: # Copyright 2003 Gentoo Technologies, Joe User, and others (see cvs # changelog.) Distributed under the GPL version 2. I don't see why this would be a problem for anyone, and makes a lot more sense than what we are doing now.=20 What we are doing now began way back when we figured out that slapping a "Copyright 2000 Gentoo Technologies, Inc." allowed us to comply with the GPL and get back to coding. That's all there is to our current "policy," folks. I am very much hoping that people will start using shared copyrights soon. I think it's very bad to continue using the single "Copyright Gentoo" one, and hope that some developers will start doing this. This is one trend that I can't start, since all the work I do is under the Gentoo Technologies, Inc. name. While I know that I'm not going to rip Gentoo off, the primary benefit to me is that it quells those who enjoy being paranoid about my intentions. The rules should be: ebuilds should be copyright Gentoo Technologies, Inc. *and* the original author/submitter, with a note for all additional cvs committers. What this does is prevent Gentoo or the original committer or later contributors from changing the license away from the GPL 2 unless all copyright holders agree. This basically makes it practically impossible for code to be hijacked from our tree, or from our users (by me presumably, after going on some kind of evil kick.) This seems near-ideal. It would be helpful if a GPL and copyright expert could review and comment. > > I believe that this has been discussed previously on this list (when I = get > > a chance I'll search my archive) and that there was an agreement reached > > between Gentoo and an educational institution on this very matter. >=20 > Was that agreement actually reached? I have been away from development=20 > and not very involved for a couple weeks. I need to contact them; haven't had time to follow up after LWE. After thinking a bit about this, it's probably best that I ask Richard Stallman what he recommends since he is likely to be much more versed in the ins and outs of this kind of thing than the typical IP lawyer who is not very familiar with the GPL. I'll cc this email to Richard and see what he says. Richard, your input would certainly be welcome, and I can forward all replies you send me to the gentoo-dev list (gentoo-dev is subscriber post only.) Best Regards, --=20 Daniel Robbins Chief Architect, Gentoo Linux http://www.gentoo.org --17pEHd4RhPHOinZp Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQE/RG4YffezrJ9WV/IRAoIHAJ0YmpUYI/3FMgr+1W6Ft3Hph2iXwQCfey0q HtVlRZiue1zNa4SfY6HUH7U= =RcU+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --17pEHd4RhPHOinZp--