LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Andrew Hill <list@fornax.net>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 18:18:48 +1030

Re: Werner Icking bicycle accident

Wild speculation follows:

Alan Kennington wrote:
> Suppose linus is eaten by a shark - does that mean that
> anyone who wants to modify the files with his copyright
> on it must talk to his heirs for the next 10 to 50 years?

No, just as they don't need to ask Linus for permission to modify the
source to Linux now. That right is guaranteed under the GPL.

> I'm not familiar enough with the GPL to know whether
> this means that any individual may then fork their own
> version of the software, or whether there is still a role for
> the heirs.

Anyone can fork their own version of the software now - it's allowed
under the GPL. Of course, the work done by Linus, and others, remains
copyright to them, or their estates. But the new work you do is
copyright to you.
 
> Copyright law was not written
> to take account of this continuous-change aspect of software.

What difference does it make? If you or I write some software, and
assign copyright to yourself/myself that means it's your/mine. But we
can still assign a GPL license to that copyright work, which means that
people are, essentially, free to do as they please with it. But the fact
that it's copyright means that we can *enforce* the GPL on that software
- so someone can't take our copyright work, change it, and then release
it *without* the GPL. That's the main (and as far as I can see, only)
point of applying a copyright to the software. The fact that the
software is always changing, and more and more people are contributing
small parts, each part copyright courtesy of them, doesn't matter -
because the GPL must be enforced across the entire software, courtesy of
the application of the GPL to the very first line of code in a project.

> Presumably the copyright would still apply to a modified
> work, because that would be like a book with spelling
> errors corrected or a few footnotes added, or like a
> re-mix of an audio CD.

Yep.

> But derived work might be less clear.

Yeah, I see your point - but if it's "derived", don't you still have to
apply the GPL, it's just under a new copyright holder? That means
there's no (effective) difference.
 
> It seems like copyright confers:
> 1.      The right to receive moneys earned from the work.
> 2.      The right to control the work artistically.

3. The right to enforce the GPL :-)

> That's why I'm asking. I don't see linuus' heirs taking over
> his supervisory role. Nor do I see linux making money, unless the
> heirs want to also release the code in a non-free form.

No big deal - someone else can supervise the kernel, as someone else
could split the kernel *now* and supervise it - just as /. reported may
be happening with the PowerPPC Linux kernel.

> My prediction is that if linus _was_ eaten by a shark, then
> linux would immediately fork, and there would be multiple
> supervisory committees, each claiming to channel the true
> spirit of linux.

And so what if that happens? The more the merrier! It seems to be
working all right for various BSD kernels....
 
> Someone might then buy the copyright to linus' work from the
> heirs for a large sum of money, and they might try to make
> really big trouble!
> In fact, I would say that this would be very likely indeed.

Even if they *did* buy the rights to the copyright, the GPL is still in
force, and nothing can change that - nothing, that is, until the
copyright expires. Then, the GPL may turn out to be unenforceable. That
would be bad.

Do the FSF suggest that you can assign copyright to the FSF for your
free software projects? I'm sure I've seen that somewhere on their site,
but can't find it right now. This would be good, as the FSF isn't an
individual that can "die". (Yeah, they can dissolve, but if that
happens, then I guess the free software movement will be gone, and it
won't matter, hey?)

Cheers,
-- 
Andrew Hill

"Right now, I'd happily snort gunk from the sink if it would take
my brain somewhere away from here...." - JB

-- 
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