Re: [gentoo-dev] Copyright issues (Was: udev-ng?)

[Greg KH <gregkh@gentoo.org>]

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 07:03:12AM -0500, Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 11:30 PM, Greg KH <gregkh@gentoo.org> wrote:
> >
> > Talk to a lawyer if you disagree with this.  The area of copyright law,
> > and software, is very well defined (with one exception of the "major
> > change to add your copyright, and even then, there's an agreed apon
> > standard to follow).  Because of that, I disagree that you think this is
> > something that is unknown at all.
> 
> I realize that it is illegal to remove a copyright line from a work
> without permission, just as it is illegal to copy a work in the first
> place without permission.  The question is whether the GPL gives such
> permission, whether it is possible to give such permission, or at
> least whether you can give somebody this permission and then sue them
> for following through.
> 
> That's my main concern here.  Can somebody say, "sure, go ahead and
> remove my name from the copyright line" and then sue you for doing it?

Just removing the name doesn't remove the copyright itself, but, and
this is the important thing, it shows "intent".  Intent is a very
powerful thing when it comes to legal enforcement.  If you remove a
copyright line, or add your own line, you are showing what you are
wanting to do here.

So if you remove a copyright line, you are showing your "intent" to
remove the legal notification of the original copyright holders of the
file, which, in numerous juristictions, can be a very serious offence.

Again, talk to a lawyer for all of the details if you are curious.

> I suspect the wisest course of action for the Foundation will be to
> take the conservative approach.  However, I do not believe that this
> is because this is legally required.  It is simply a matter of not
> being wise to spend all that donated money fighting to prove that this
> is the case.  After all, even if I'm completely right, that doesn't
> mean that somebody can't sue me.  Winning a legal case in the US is a
> very expensive proposition.  I'm sure that would be the advice of any
> lawyer we retained.  All that said, a formal policy would be a good
> idea.

No one has to "fight" at all here, the law is very clear, and a quick
consultation with a copyright lawyer can provide us with a very good set
of rules and boundry conditions that all of us need to follow in order
to ensure that the Foundation does not get into any trouble when it
comes to copyrights.

thanks,

greg k-h