Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.vbc.net!vbcnet-west!garlic.com!fox.almaden.ibm.com!uunet!in2.uu.net!206.229.87.25!news.sprintlink.net!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!EU.net!Germany.EU.net!Dortmund.Germany.EU.net!interface-business.de!usenet From: j@ida.interface-business.de (J Wunsch) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs whatever Date: 11 Feb 1997 10:09:46 GMT Organization: interface business GmbH, Dresden Lines: 26 Message-ID: <5dpgha$1th@innocence.interface-business.de> References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <32EA25AB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <5qC7y0gTzDLB091yn@ibm.net> <5ciraf$gs@cynic.portal.ca> <32EE0B70.1657@ml.com> <5claa2$jq1@cynic.portal.ca> <5dask0$13q0@usenet1y.prodigy.net> <5dfnn2$b3g@sjx-ixn3.ix.netcom.com> <5dkp57$553@gummo.bbb.sub.org> <5dn8bo$l4q@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de (Joerg Wunsch) NNTP-Posting-Host: ida.interface-business.de X-Newsreader: knews 0.9.6 X-Phone: +49-351-31809-14 X-Fax: +49-351-3361187 X-PGP-Fingerprint: DC 47 E6 E4 FF A6 E9 8F 93 21 E0 7D F9 12 D6 4E Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:157606 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5967 byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff) wrote: > >PS: one last question: Let's assume Author A wrote a program and made > > it available under the GPL. Now many different contributors added > > bug-fixes and enhancements (still under GPL). Is the original > > author still allowed to change the copyright (to LGPL or something > > else)? > > Nope. Not without consent of each of the other contributors. Of course, ``this depends''. It only proves that copyright law is a poor sucker to protect software, at least here in Germany. Changes to the source that don't establish some ``artistic value'' would be negligible by the copyright law. Ironically, a change that doesn't modify any functionality but for example restructures the entire source from unreadability to a clear structure is much more likely to constitute a copyrightable work than a three-line fix that caused twice as much time in order to actually find the bug, and turned out to be crucial wrt. the functionality of some software. As i wrote: copyright law sucks when it comes to software. -- J"org Wunsch Unix support engineer joerg_wunsch@interface-business.de http://www.interface-business.de/~j