Wired Article on the GPL

[Chip Salzenberg]

According to W . Yip:
> On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 15:49:49 -0800, Chip Salzenberg <chip at valinux.com> wrote:
> >By releasing under the GPL, the original authors surrendered their
> >right to control GPL-compatible copying.  Having surrendered that
> >right, the original authors are not able to transfer it.
> 
> Mattel's lawyers would certainly disagree with you on this one. They
> probably would stand by their contract and claim that copyright has been
> assigned to them.

Oh, I won't argue that point.  Mattel certainly owns the copyright.

But I would consider it obvious that, once I have been granted me a
license to copy, neither the original copyright holder nor his assigns
have the authority to stop me.  In other words, the license adheres to
the code, not the author.

Frankly, I'm stunned that Mattel is even bringing this argument.
They (or the department in question) must be in a full-blown panic.
-- 
Chip Salzenberg              - a.k.a. -              <chip at valinux.com>
"I wanted to play hopscotch with the impenetrable mystery of existence,
    but he stepped in a wormhole and had to go in early."  // MST3K