Michael T. Babcock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I understand Copyright law as much as many long time free / open source
> software advocates do.
Very few people understand copyright law in general. Free software advocates
are not much better at it than others; RMS is a notable exception.
> That said, in a case-law country, I can do pretty much whatever I think
> is legal to do until he sues me. At that point, the courts decide.
Not exactly. Copyright and the protections thereof come into effect the
moment the work is created. No notice is required in the work itself to
be legally binding. In the absence of a statement granting you certain
rights, the legal assumption is you have no right to use the work in any
way.
Note that one point which is still questionable is whether a statement of
your rights applies if it is not signed by the creator of the work; if
licenses shipped with code in digital format are found to not be legally
binding, the situation reverts to you having no license, and therefore no
rights to the work in question.
Charles
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Charles Cazabon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
GPL'ed software available at: http://www.qcc.sk.ca/~charlesc/software/
Any opinions expressed are just that -- my opinions.
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