updating the GPL's status in http://www.opensource.org/licenses/category ?

[Mahesh T. Pai]

John Cowan said on Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 10:13:31AM -0500,:

 > Any joint author may make a non-exclusive license under whatever
 > terms; see http://www.publaw.com/joint.html (which makes no
 > reference to

This means that any contributor to the kernel can distribute the
Kernel under GPL v. 3. Or the M$ "foo" license. Or even create his/her
own license.

I doubt the legal system (at least most common law systems) would allow that. 

 > software) or Thomson v. Larson, 147 F.3d 195, 199 (2d Cir. 1998):
 > "Joint authorship entitles the co-authors to equal undivided
 > interests in the whole work -- in other words, each joint author
 > has the right to use or to license the work as he or she wishes,
 > subject only to the obligation to account to the other joint owner
 > for any profits that are made."  In the case of FLOSS software,
 > there are of course no profits.

Hmmm.... If Tom contributed 200 lines of code, which was re-written by
Harr, adding his own 2000 lines; and the file was re-written by Dick
discarding 19 lines of Tom's contributions, would this still apply?

Conversely, if only 1 line from Tom's original contributions were
accepted, would Tom still have same rights as (for example), Alan Cox? 

(I am deliberately leaving out Linus)

 > That said, AFAIK no FLOSS software author has ever tried to do
 > this, and the reputational damage would probably be severe, given
 > how strong the belief in unanimous consent is.

Let us keep things simple. We are not discussing a proprietary
re-licensing scenario. We will stick to re-licensing the Kernel under
GPL v. 3.

I will not dispute your statement about the US law on joint
authorship. What I am pointing out is that if what you say about the
US position is true, there are some unforeseen consequences. 

PS:- Even M$ has contributions to the official Kernel tree (that is
what I read somewhere). 

Let the flames begin.... I am ready with a bag of popcorn and
lemonade. :-P


-- 
Mahesh T. Pai || http://paivakil.blogspot.com 

TRUTH, n.  An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance.
Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the
most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of
existing with increasing activity to the end of time.