[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Copyright notice

[Gaute B Strokkenes <gs234@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 30 Jun 2001, killes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
> 
> On Fri, 29 Jun 2001, Arien Malec wrote:
> 
>> The FSF requires assignment of copywright by contributors (which is
>> a bit onerous, but legally clean), and it may or may not be a good
>> idea to assign
>                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not everywhere in the world. Actually
> this is impossible by German law. Once you have created something
> you are the copyright holder. You can let others use it, but you
> remain the copyright holder.

Copyright law is generally regualated by international agreements
these days, and is supposed to be reasonably uniform.

Copyright is definitely transferable.

The FSF requires copyright assignments if you wish to make non-trivial
contributions to GNU software that is copyrighted by the FSF.  (It is
not a requirement that it be, but IIRC the legal status of a piece of
software must be clear, unambiguous and orderly.)  While no one can
stop you from coming up with a patch to a piece of GNU software and
distributing it to the world at large as long as you follow , it will
not be merged back unless you sign an assignment.  There are good
legal reasons for making that requirement; have a look at the GNU GPL
FAQ at <http://www.gnu.org> for more detail.

It should be noted that a "copyright assignment" in the context of GNU
and the FSF is a slightly more complicated process; it involves a
contributor and the FSF signing a legal contract where the FSF is
given the copyright, and in return the contributor gets a license to
do whatever he or she pleases with the code that was just assigned,
including sub-licensing it, using it in proprietary products
etc. etc.  The FSF also committs itself to making the code avaiable to
the general public under a free license etc. etc.

All of this is clearly too much trouble for a small project like
Freeciv to bother with.  My recommendation is that we change the
copyright notices to state "Copyright $GREAT_DANES and others" with
appropriate dates, and to continue to keep track of the people who
submit patches.  (We're probably in violation of the section of the
GPL that reads:

    a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
    stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

by not doing so already...)

> OTOH IANAL.

Me neither.  I do not speak on behalf of the FSF, so don't blame them
if I just said something wrong.

-- 
Big Gaute                               http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~gs234/
Leona, I want to CONFESS things to you..
 I want to WRAP you in a SCARLET ROBE trimmed with POLYVINYL CHLORIDE..
 I want to EMPTY your ASHTRAYS...