On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 17:59:09 +0000, Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 05:33:46PM +0100, Arnt Karlsen wrote: > > On Tue, 9 Dec 2003 13:58:15 +0000, > > Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > On Mon, Dec 08, 2003 at 04:58:26PM -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote: > > > > On a more practical note: copyright would pass to the estate > > > > and heirs. It's possible (not necessarially easy) to get > > > > assignments in this case. > > > > > > Yeah. The thought has occurred to me, but it seems rather > > > tasteless to go and ask. In practice my assessment is that it's > > > vanishingly unlikely to become an actual problem (and if it does, > > > I'll just remove all copyrightable pieces of code he wrote), so > > > again I've gone for the easy road. > > > > ..I disagree: It _is_ appropriate to approach the heirs and ask, > > informing them of the 2 alternatives, removal of his code (just > > like we're gonna do with any SCO code), and the heirs giving > > their permission to let the dead man's code work survive under > > the GPL and copyright law. Chances are very good they will > > consider what he would have wanted them to do. > > > > .._not_ asking, I find _less_ appropriate, because chances are, > > the heirs may feel we take liberties with _their_ copyright. > > Eh? The code is GPL. The person in question was perfectly aware of > this and licensed his code the same way. *No* liberties are being > taken! .._we_ know that. His _heirs_, does not neccessarily know, understand, or appreciate, this fact. Which again _may_ cause such bad feelings. ..myself, I prefer to err on the side of caution, such bad feelings _can_ be prevented, both by removal of dead mens code, and by asking the heirs. Removal and rewriting, is of course the safest approach, but forces "re-inventing the wheel", I like to see re-innovation happen on technological merits alone, not just because someone dies. > The discussion with Karsten is about the problem of getting copyright > assignments to the FSF for the purpose of making it a GNU project, > which is purely hypothetical; it's something I have no intention of > actually doing. ..nevertheless we oughtta think thru this, we will all die, so we wanna secure our copyrights so our work _remains_ available, and ours, FSF is a good tool to enforce our deads copyright. > Please read the thread a little more carefully. .. ;-) -- ..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-) ...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry... Scenarios always come in sets of three: best case, worst case, and just in case. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]