On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Raul Miller wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 1999 at 04:27:42PM -0500, Thomas Bushnell, BSG wrote:
> > We have an "owner" who authored the software and holds the copypright
> > for something distributed under GPL, and a "copier" who has made a
> > copy of it.
>
> Usually, what you're calling the owner is called the "author". Why
> choose different terminology, here?
>
Because there is a definite distinction (at least in non-moral rights
copyright regimes such as the US and UK) between the author and the
copyright owner. In particular, the author can sell his copyright to some
other person or legal entity. In fact, if (for some reason) the original
author sells the copyright to a GPL'ed work (say because of a court
judgement) the new owner might be inclined to revoke the license.
Lynn
