Molly Cheah wrote:
> See this. http://www.samba.org/~tridge/fta_statement.html
I read this. It's an opinion piece, not a legal analysis. And quite
frankly it's .... well, written by a confused person.
This FTA protects your open source software, regardless of whether or
not you wrote it for personal or commercial use.
So, let me point out a few things here. This FTA means that when you
write your open source software in Australia, the U.S. recognizes you as
the author. You have all the legal means to prevent companies in the
U.S. from violating your license.
It also:
* requires the U.S. to give Australians the same intellectual property
protection it gives its own citizens. Austrilia gives U.S. citizens the
same protections it gives its own citizens. If you write a piece of
software in Australia you can prevent me from selling it without your
permission. You can force Microsoft to obey the GNU license on your
software even if you're a teenager in the Australian outback.
* requires the U.S. to recognize Australian trademarks just as it does
U.S. trademarks. Therefore, the trademark of open source software
written in Australia can't be used by say, IBM without permission.
* requires the availability of digital registration services. Great for
everyone.
* means, if I understand it, that you don't actually have to register
your intellectual property with the registration service to be yours.
You own your software, trademark or other intellectual property when you
create it.
* requires the U.S. to allow Australians to challenge the use of a
trademark or copyright by a U.S. company. And visa-versa.
.. I could go on, but this is a long law...
Tridgell's complaint about "doublespeak" is also seriously misguided.
The treaty aims to bring under its protection any kind of intellectual
property, even if it's created for commercial or non-commercial
purposes. And it aims to prosecute violtaions whether or not the
violations were for commercial or non-commercial purposes.
Open Source software created by a person would receive that protection.
That's a good thing.
Richard
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
