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Re: Licensing Issues


From: Gregory John Casamento
Subject: Re: Licensing Issues
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2005 07:28:51 -0800 (PST)

Alex,

--- Alexander Malmberg <alexander@malmberg.org> wrote:

> Gregory John Casamento wrote:
> > --- Riccardo <multix@ngi.it> wrote:
> >>SO I suppose anyone that takes some imaging code out of price and puts 
> >>it in GNUstep, provided the license is compatible, should retain my 
> >>Copyright. Or am I wrong here?
> > 
> > Yes, you are wrong. ;)
> 
> No, he's right. The copyright is his until _he_ choses to transfer it to 
> someone else. One can't take away his copyright simply by "take(ing) 
> some imaging code out of price and put(ting) it in GNUstep", regardless 
> of license.

I was assuming that he was talking about himself putting something into
GNUstep,  not someone else.  My mistake for missing this.  Only the copyright
holder of a given work can surrender copyright to that work.  Transfer of
copyright cannot be affected by a third party.
 
> GNUstep policy is that changes must have copyright assigned to FSF, but 
> I think it's important to point out that the way this happens is that 
> _first_ you assign copyright and then it can added to GNUstep (and if 
> you don't assign copyright it _can't_ be added to GNUstep, due to 
> policy). There's no way anyone can take away your copyright just because 
> you license your code under the GPL.
> 
> > GNUstep and other GNU projects must have the copyright transferred to the
> FSF.
> > For non-GNU GPL projects, it's okay for you to retain your copyright, but
> for
> > code contributed to a GNU project you must provide an assignment which
> > transfers the copyright from you to the FSF, unless you release the code
> into
> > the public domain (as with tiff.m).
> 
> Well, you're encouraged to assign copyright to the FSF for GNU projects, 
> but it's not required. See:
> 
>
http://savannah.gnu.org/faq/?group_id=5802&question=What_does_it_mean_to_become_a_GNU_package.txt
>
> (last paragraph)

I wasn't aware that the policy was flexible.  My misunderstanding. :)
 
> Again, GNUstep policy is that changes should have their copyrights 
> assigned to the FSF, but there are parts of GNUstep that, as far as I 
> know, have not had their copyrights assigned to the FSF (e.g. the parts 
> of wraster included in -back). Some of the exceptional copyright notices 
> might be simple oversights, but this must be checked carefully before 
> changing them.

I agree.  
 
> - Alexander Malmberg
> 
> 
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> 

Later, GJC

=====
Gregory John Casamento 
-- CEO/President Open Logic Corp. (A MD Corp.)
## Maintainer of Gorm (IB Equiv.) for GNUstep.




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