On Monday 23 September 2002 12:03, Joerg Schilling wrote: > Preface: I am sorry, but it seems that you don't know much about > Copyright issues :-( Many of your statements are completely > wrong and none of your mails from the last night has been > helpful. > > For a decent discussion on this topic it is important that we use > correct verbalizations. Unfortunately, the English language is > not very precise here.... > [...explanation of _German_ copyright system...]
I believe we need to make a clear distinction between the German copyright laws and the American copyright laws. Unfortunately, there seem to be some major differences here, and given what you wrote I'm not even sure if the GPL makes sense at all in the context of German (and probably other European) copyright law. > From: "Mike A. Harris" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > [...] > >That's a good thing or a bad thing depending on your viewpoint. > >Some people view it as a bad point, because even if you write a > >program and GPL it, you cannot legally change the license on > > your own code, or multiple license it, unless all code > > contributors have agreed to the relicense/multi-license, or > > have assigned their copyright completely to you. > > Wrong! > > If there is an author who owns the authorship rights for the work > (like it is true for me with e.g. cdrecord), this author is the > only person who may decide on authorship right issues. > > As libscg is a major contribution from me to the cdrdao project, > I would be able to put a veto on this. But as I already did allow > cdrecord to be linked with libedc it is obvious that I don't use > my veto right here. That's what I mean. The whole idea of the GPL is that if you put your software under GPL, then everyone will be able to use it as long as the terms of the GPL are satisfied. If the original author can still veto anything that happens with the code it can't be free software as in the FSF definition. Perhaps the FSF should be notified and/or asked about this? Seems to me like it might be a major problem. Lourens -- GPG public key: http://home.student.utwente.nl/l.e.veen/lourens.key -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
