Simple Public License, Please Review

[Justin Wells]

Rod I really appreciate that you are taking some time to review this. 
Thank you!


On Wed, Apr 05, 2000 at 06:42:57AM -0400, Rod Dixon, J.D., LL.M. wrote:
> Be careful. Free software is not exactly public domain, which is what I
> think you have in mind. Only the copyright holder can go into court to
> enforce the copyright. Hence, it is not just better, but necessary, to
> transfer copyright to some entity, if you want to avoid the vanishing
> copyright holder problem.

My clause reads like this:

  For the sole purpose of taking action against an infringer of
  our copyrights, including actions seeking remedies, compensation,
  or the recovery of damages, anyone engaged in the lawful distribution
  of our software shall be considered a beneficial owner of the
  rights to copy and distribute it, and therefore has the authority
  to pursue such actions.

The goal is to put distributors into a position where they can go to 
court as the copyright holder, but not give them enough copyright 
ownership to be able to change the license. 

I copied the notion of "beneficial owner" from the US copyright act, 
where it uses that phrase to give television broadcasters the right
to enforce copyright licenses they have paid for in their broadcast 
area. 

If this language doesn't accomplish that, is there something else I 
could do instead? Maybe I could declare that they are agents of the 
copyright holder when acting in this capacity or some such. 

Justin