It seems that people are focusing more on SCO's business model of "Scare
and Sue" than the issue of copyright protection.
Let's leave SCO out of the equation.
Let's pretend that I started an Open Source project.
I copyright or copyleft, under the GPL.
In the beginning I write most of the code myself, and it gains some
users and another developer or two.
A developer on the project contributes code that is somebody else's and
not under an Open Source License.
What protection do I have for my users, my other developers, and for
myself?
ps- I've googled, and scoured gnu's and fsf's websites to no avail.
I'm not proposing anything, just asking a question ;)
If you really want to see my driver's license it will
cost you $699 ($1399 after OCT 15) ;P
On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 22:25, Ed Hill wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 18:59, Gnu Man wrote:
> > What safeguards are put into place? I'm not attacking you, but merely
> > asking. I'm also not trying to start a flame war (although I never
> > remove my asbestos underwear).
> >
> > If the safeguards are there, and how can we defend ourselves against
> > someone who claims that their code has entered our source tree, but
> > won't show the offending code. A quote from SCO, "because we require
> > all of our Unix licensees to keep this code in confidence for their own
> > business purposes" .
> >
> > There is a legitimate issue here. Whether SCO has any legitimate claims
> > remains to be seen. Ignoring the problem, calling it FUD or whatever,
> > will not solve the problem.
> >
> > We all may soon be forced to go underground (or face legal liability)
> > with our love for our favorite penguin powered machines, if corrective
> > measures are not put into place.
> >
> > I am only trying to help, if I am not welcomed here, then so be it.
> >
> > I hate to see such a great idea as open source go down the drain because
> > we didn't act and put proper protections in place.
>
>
> Oh, thats baloney.
>
> Exactly what "safeguards" do you propose?
>
> The FSF already has extensive documentation
>
> http://www.fsf.org/
> http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/philosophy.html
> http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/why-assign.html
>
> and has taken great pains to explain the proper means for code
> development and copyright assignment. And to date, they have an
> excellent track record with regard to GPL enforcement. Honestly, try
> googling for "GPL license enforcement" and see what you find.
>
> So yes, there is "an issue" here. The issue is SCOX -- a company thats
> desperately trying to drag who- and what-ever they can along with them
> as they hurl towards financial oblivion.
>
> Ed
>
> ps - And Tanner has an excellent point. Isn't it curious that
> you who are trying to make some (ill-defined?) point about
> code ownership and copyright attribution fail to provide
> an identity?
>
>
> > On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 17:33, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> > > On Tue, 2003-08-05 at 17:28, Gnu Man wrote:
> > > > That would be like cutting off the head to cure the headache.
> > > >
> > > > The root of the problem is IP (intellectual property). Open source
> > > > needs a system to protect everyone that copyrighted code is not entered
> > > > into their source trees.
> > > >
> > > > I'm afraid if this problem is not fixed, Open Source Software's future
> > > > does not look very good.
> > >
> > > Ok, I'm calling you on this right now! This is nothing but FUD.
> > > Open Source Software's future is perfectly fine. There are plenty
> > > of safeguards for this, and if somehow something slips through
> > > it gets removed as fast as it can get identified.
> > >
> > > I begin to wonder why you are hiding behind the facade of a name
> > > like Gnu Man. Who are you really? With statements like that, you're
> > > no Gnu Man. Do you work at SCO? Go spread your FUD elsewhere.
> > >
> > > Tanner
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