APL license - What about the enforced logos?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting David Woolley (david at djwhome.demon.co.uk):

> I believe that the problem being highlighted is that the actual
> copyright ownership may be a composite of Alfresco's and subsequent
> contributors', but this requirement can result in the notice not
> being allowed to include notice of the subsequent contributions, thus
> misrepresenting the true copyright ownership.

Not allowing a property holder to indicate his/her property would be,
to be blunt, mildly insane and clearly contrary to public policy and
the general intent of copyright law.  Why would you think a judge would
interpret the licence that way, or, if he/she did so, hold it to be
enforceable?  

(Even joint or collective works are subject to multiple copyright
notices, quite routinely.)

> Another problem is that it would reset the copyright date, which,
> as the copyright is corporate, would purport to extend the life of
> Alfresco's copyright.

I confess I am sadly ignorant of any mechanism other than statute by 
which copyright date might be 'reset'.

> Finally, if one interprets this as referring to the licence grant, rather
> than the copyright notice, it means that the licence can be modified
> or revoked.

You'll want to look up 'promisorry estoppel' at this point, among other
things.

> I thought that a judge's job in this respect was to try to determine,
> on the balance of probability, what the licence drafter's intentions
> were.  On my reading of the material quoted, I think it is clear that
> they, did require the visibility and presence of hyperlinks that 
> could only really be achieved by having a GUI.

Fortunately, I think most judges are more familiar with the term 'if
any' and 'if applicable' than are the Asperger's poster children so
famously prominent among us.  

-- 
Cheers,                  Higgeldy Piggeldy             "Phooey on Freud and his 
Rick Moen                Hamlet of Elsinore            Psychoanalysis -- 
rick at linuxmafia.com      Ruffled the critics by        Oedipus, Schmoedipus,    
                         Dropping this bomb:           I just loved Mom."