Re: Copyright assignment

[James Henstridge <james jamesh id au>]

On 03/08/04 00:21, Sander Vesik wrote:

> The ability to actually have a chance of successful prosecution of an infringement
> case? 
>  
This is a bit misleading.  It really depends on whether the courts 
consider the work to be covered by a joint copyright of the authors, or 
to be a collective work (where each contributor owns the copyright on 
their contributions but no one else's).

With a joint copyright, it can be difficult to prove that someone 
infringed the copyright because each joint copyright holder has the 
power to license the code.  However if the package is considered a 
collective work, each contributor is responsible for their own 
contributions.

Also, the recent Linux netfilter/iptables court cases and settlements 
show that it is possible to pursue an infringement case where you only 
own part of the the package as a whole.

James.

--
Email: james jamesh id au
WWW:   http://www.jamesh.id.au/