Re: Documentation License

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Mon, 2009-04-27 at 14:35 +0100, Matthew East wrote:
> Hi Luis,
> 
> On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Luis Villa <luis tieguy org> wrote:
> > "A transfer of copyright ownership ... is not valid unless an
> > instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is
> > in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such
> > owner's duly authorized agent."[1]
> >
> > UK law has a similar provision (UK Copyright, Design and Patents Act
> > 1988, s. 90(3).)
> 
> Interesting - that would appear to put a block on the idea. However it
> would be interesting to pursue the question of whether submitting
> patches or pushing to a revision control system could be considered a
> signature.
> 
> Apart from anything else, if this is not possible, then it is probably
> be necessary to rethink the current copyright declarations of the user
> guide, which seem to purport that the copyright holders are Sun
> Microsystems and Shaun, respectively.

This is an unfortunate effect of us not being vigilant in
ensuring contributors add copyright elements to the DocBook
files.  I don't know the legal ramifications of copyright
holders not stating their copyright in the document.

--
Shaun