Re: Licensing and copyright

[Rob Adams <readams readams net>]

I don't see how either of those scenarios are relevant.  The DMCA really
doesn't matter here -- the crux of the DMCA is the criminalizing of
circumvention of technical any-copying measures.  While this is
certainly controversial, the law does not apply to Free Software because
the whole point is that there are no such measures.

Furthermore, it is not possible that the GPL could be revoked by
judicial decree -- the license is irrevocable.

It is worth mentioning however that US copyright law would be the
governing authority here, but as the document explains, the basic
elements of copyright are governed by international treaty, and it is
these elements of copyright on which the GPL depends.

-Rob

On Sun, 2004-02-22 at 13:34 +0100, Jean-Michel POURE wrote:

> Le Dimanche 22 Février 2004 04:40, Jeff Waugh a écrit :
> > > Please send me any comments you have, or if you prefer to directly edit
> > > the XML, send me changes in unified context diff format (diff -u).
> 
> Dear Rob,
> 
> On page http://readams.net/copyright/gnome-copyright/x68.html, you write:
> 
> "For example, you don't trust the Free Software Foundation not to later 
> relicense your software under terms you don't agree with, you shouldn't 
> assign your copyright to them."
> 
> I do not quite agree. The FSF and Richard Sallman have proved to be very 
> reliable over the years.
> 
> The issue is not a question of trust, but a question of law. Authors should be 
> aware of worst case scenarios (any comments are welcome):
> 
> Worst case scenario 1:
> 
> "After assigning the copyright to the American FSF, authors should be aware 
> that their work falls under the umbrella of the American law, including the 
> DMCA. Of course, in case of dispute, the FSF will do its best to defend 
> authors, although authors may have to show-up in court themselves."
> 
> Worst case scenario 2:
> 
> "After receiving a copyright  assessment, the FSF becomes the sole owner of 
> the original work. If one day the FSF is forced to pay a large sum of money, 
> for example in case of patent infringement, the judge may decide to use any 
> means to revover the money, including rewriting the licenses and later 
> selling them."
> 
> Trust is not the issue, I only prefer to live by my own country rules. We can 
> only fight and defend Free Software at an international level.
> 
> Cheers,
> Jean-Michel