Re: Licensing Issues

[Alexander Malmberg]

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.

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)

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.

- Alexander Malmberg