Hello all - My previous email may have been lost in the fray so I'd just like to float my recommendation again.
If you have contributed code, please check to make sure your copyright, and the date, is in the header for the source code you have contributed. This will make it easier for us to track if there has been a copyright and GPL violation. If someone modifies a copyrighted file AND distributes that file IN VIOLATION OF the GPL version 2, then the person or people who hold the copyright on that file can force compliance. However, I also believe we should put a copyright statement within the executables of FlightGear which we distribute - we should have a statement saying FlightGear is copyrighted by its contributors - please see the source code for information. (Perhaps several statements, in the console and under the menu for instance.) Just because we release the software and the components of the software under the GPL does not necessarily mean the contributors forfeit their copyright on the work. By including copyright information within the essence of our product components, we thereby make it more difficult for resellers to rebrand and resell our product (because they can't just remove the copyright without being in violation of the GPL - and if they do they have to state how they modified the file from the original copy in the source code, AND distribute that source code). At the same time, we maintain the fact the copyright is held by the individual contributors, which was important to people the last time around. This also does not constrict the freedom of the software under the GPL and therefore I would strongly recommend adding this into the software. If people are opposed to this for whatever reason, a "softer" suggestion would be including an About menu with version information in each version, say "FlightGear version 2.0.0 release date X/X/2010". Since this doesn't include a copyright, though, anyone can remove it as long as they state they removed it within the source code of the product; and since the people likely to be negatively affected by someone reselling our product as-is aren't going to be looking at the source code, I strongly recommend the copyright components, Cheers John ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
