how much right do I have on my project, if there are patches by others?

David Woolley forums at david-woolley.me.uk
Sat Jul 7 10:41:29 UTC 2007


John Cowan wrote:

> It is, however, how patches are accepted and processed: patch authors,
> if the patch is substantial and is accepted into the original work,
> do meet the definition of joint authorship.

I don't believe they do, because the original work was not written with 
the specific intention of integrating with that particular patch.
I believe that the second paragraph of the legislative commentary applies.

However, if you were right, that would fundamentally undermine copyleft 
licences, as, a contributor could contribute a small but non-trivial 
patch and then relicence the whole product under their proprietary licence.

-- 
David Woolley
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RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
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