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On Fri, Aug 13, 2004 at 12:13:13AM +0100, Robert Gibson wrote:
I have a difficult query about open source, which I hope someone here
can help with. My friend Gordon was very close to having a working
Flash 7 player called magnesium that runs under Linux, and wanted to
release it as open source. He passed away last month, and his friends
want to do something with this software in his memory.
His computers were passed on to me, and I have the program at my
house. I can't see any copyrights anywhere, so: is it okay if we
release it as open source, and what should we do?
The copyright that exists in the program that your friend wrote is a thing
of value, to be apportioned in the same manner as the rest of his estate.
It is certainly *not* OK just to release it as open source, because absent
an explicit notice to the contrary, all software has copyright over it, with
all the same restrictions as any other work (no unauthorized duplication,
etc etc).
The most prudent course of action would be to declare the held copyright to
the executor of Gordon's estate and have it distributed according to
Gordon's wishes (in the case of the existence of a valid will) or according
to the laws of probate in your (Gordon's(?)) jurisdiction. Hopefully
someone who was aware of (or could be made aware of) Gordon's interest in
seeing the program released as open source will receive the copyrights; they
can then release the work under a Free licence.
All of the above presumes that you have a copyright term that includes a
term in excess of the life of the author, such as the US' life+70 years.
There are some jurisdictions where copyright is terminated when the author
passes away. It may be worth investing in an hour or two of a landshark's
time to make sure everything is hunky-dory in your corner of the world.
(The above is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV,
and all of the rest of the usual disclaimers)
- Matt
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