Lennart Sorensen wrote: > On Tue, Sep 18, 2007 at 11:55:29AM -0700, Can E. Acar wrote: >> Well, they can add their names *anywhere* in the whole file, *except* >> these two lines. See, these lines have a whole different meaning >> when it comes to laws. When they make sufficient contribution, they >> sure can add their names. What is so difficult to understand here? > > Please define "Sufficient contribution". And in what juristiction that > definition applies.
Please note that I am not a lawyer. It would be best if you do your own research, and consult a lawyer. Please look up the definition of derivative work. Even Wikipedia would do for some basic definitions. The copyright laws in most countries adhere to the "Berne Convention", yet another phrase to look up. >From my own research, one guideline I would consider is: "The new material must be original and copyrightable in itself." But, again, if it comes to that, the lawyers will decide and we can have no more say on the subject. Let me, instead tell you how we handle this when working on BSD code: We communicate. If we feel we did some extensive changes to a file, we ask. Get OKs from other senior developers, preferably the authors and then add our name. During our license audits of the OpenBSD tree, a couple of years ago, our developers went into great pains to locate the authors and clarify the questionable licenses that were our tree. We are actively working on replacing the remaining non-BSD licensed code in our tree. Not by slapping on our own licenses, but by asking the authors nicely to relicense, finding replacements with an acceptable license, or by rewriting them. Can -- In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
