Christian Ohm schreef: > On Tuesday, 16 January 2007 at 6:58, Giel van Schijndel wrote: > >> Christian Ohm schreef: >> >>> On Monday, 15 January 2007 at 23:18, Giel van Schijndel wrote: >>> >>>> Legally I don't think it matters whether you do make note of "those >>>> various authors". Nor does it matter if you'd claim copyright on the >>>> changes made in 2005, since there is no law prohibiting claiming >>>> copyright when you don't legally poses it. >>>> >>> There is not? So if the real copyright holder complains, he does based >>> on what? >>> >> No, there isn't a law prohibiting copyright claims that cannot be >> justified. In fact I'd wish there was, that would/might stop some >> companies from digitizing public domain works such as paintings and >> other art from 1800 etc., only to claim copyright on it (copyright >> requires something to be an *original* work, merely scanning and >> possibly retouching a picture doesn't count as such). >> > But we're talking about a copyrighted work here. Say two people, Adam > and Bill, start writing a book. Then Bill does something else and Adam > finishes the book by himself. He then makes copies of the book with the > notice "Copyright by Adam". Now you're saying Bill has no way to assert > his copyright on the book even though he wrote parts of it? > No, what I'm saying is that (in your hypothetical case) Adam doesn't have to assert Bill's copyright through a copyright notice. Secondly as Per previously stated, a copyright notice is only that (a notice) since copyright is *always* implicitly granted under the current copyright treaties. All that a copyright notice can do besides just informing is waiving certain rights or granting others rights on the copyrighted work.
So to get back to Bill and Adam. Bill should just sue Adam if he didn't grant Adam the right to use his work, or when Adam didn't meet Bill's requirements. And since attribution is *not* required by GPL, and secondly the GPL does *not* allow a redistributor to put additional restrictions on the source code. Conclusion: we are not (legally) obligated to attribute any authors at all. double quote: > Now you're saying Bill has no way to assert his copyright on the book even > though he wrote parts of it? In case of a lawsuit I believe any reasonable judge will accept more evidence than just the book and the copyright notices in there. at Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:26:20 +0100 Dennis Schridde wrote: > I was just told that the real problem might be that the WZRP can't > have a copyright on anything, because it doesn't exist in any legal > way in reality... > So I guess "various authors" is the only option. Am I correct? It seems I'm receiving all mails from the mailinglist in a random fashion lately (last week or so). That's why I just received this one, and as such why I respond to that ^^ message now. Not entirely true. WZRP does indeed not exist as a corporate entity (i.e. a tax registered corporation). That means it can indeed not own anything at all. It's members however can have ownership, and present their ownership (copyright in this case) under the name of WZRP. Anyhow, whether WZRP as a name or entity has any legal status at all has nothing whatsoever to do with copyright law. And since the "copyright (c) year person/organization/whatever" statements are not legally obligated or in anyway prohibited. Meaning, the current copyright header doesn't break any laws nor does it violate anyone's legal rights. Then one final point on the "various authors" as a replacement for WZRP. That way you'd make it too obvious for anyone intending not to obey the GPL on WZ that it would be very hard if not impossible to sue anyone for copyright violations. So my vote is, definitely don't use various authors as a replacement for WZRP, and preferably use "Warzone Development Project" for 2005 if you deem it necessary (which it legally isn't) to make note of 2005. That said, I'd only like to say this on the matter still: the current copyright header/notice is fine with me. -- Giel
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