Scope of copyright on derivative works

[Chuck Swiger]

On Sep 28, 2007, at 2:04 PM, Smith, McCoy wrote:
> BSD license text is on the OSI website.  http://www.opensource.org/ 
> licenses/bsd-license.php
>
> Perhaps you can point out where in that text is the “requirement  
> that the permission grant” be included.

It seems to be right here:

"* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright  
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
  * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright  
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the  
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution."

Chris used the phrase "permission grant" rather than "above copyright  
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer", but  
most of his key point here:

> What the BSD license does not do is prevent you from enforcing your  
> own copyrights as you see fit.  Those could be released under the  
> GPL v2 or a proprietary license.  However, you cannot extend the  
> GPL restrictions to copyrighted elements you don't have a claim  
> to.  This means that BSD-licensed code is always under the BSD  
> license *only* unless the copyright author approves a license  
> change, ...

...makes perfect sense to me.  What I'm not convinced about is this  
conclusion:

> ...and thus seems to pose no differences in GPL3 compatibility  
> issues when compared to the MS-PL.

...because the GPL forbids redistribution of GPL'ed code under any  
other terms, whereas the BSDL does not have such a restriction.  As  
Jon Rosenberg mentioned in the original license submission:

"* Can MS-PL code be redistributed in combination with other code  
that is licensed under a different license?
As long as the original MS-PL licensed code is redistributed under  
the MS-PL license, then the MS-PL  places no restrictions on  
combining MS-PL code with other code that is licensed under another  
license.  Licenses that prohibit the distribution of code under any  
terms other than the terms of that license will not be compatible  
with the MS-PL."



-- 
-Chuck