Copyright protection (was Re: [TriLUG] SCO Conference Call)

[Tanner Lovelace]

Gnu Man wrote:

> It seems that people are focusing more on SCO's business model of "Scare
> and Sue" than the issue of copyright protection.
> 
> Let's leave SCO out of the equation.
> 
> Let's pretend that I started an Open Source project.
> 
> I copyright or copyleft, under the GPL.
> 
> In the beginning I write most of the code myself, and it gains some
> users and another developer or two.
> 
> A developer on the project contributes code that is somebody else's and
> not under an Open Source License.
> 
> What protection do I have for my users, my other developers, and for
> myself?
> 
> ps- I've googled, and scoured gnu's and fsf's websites to no avail.
>      I'm not proposing anything, just asking a question ;)
>      If you really want to see my driver's license it will
>      cost you $699 ($1399 after OCT 15) ;P   		

Ok, let's say that happens.  Then when the original author of
the code (let's not call it IP, since that's a confusing term, see 
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty
for more information why I'm suggesting this) contacts the Open Source
author one of two things can happen.

1) They can say, hey, you used our source code here and we didn't
   authorize that.  At which point the author will use CVS to remove
   that bid of code from the product and it will be rewritten.  The
   person that submitted it will be publically razzed and that will
   be it.  Case closed.

or

2) They can say, you used our code and we're going to sue you.
    When the open source author says, I'm sorry, just let me know
    what code is infringing and I'll remove it they say, sorry, it's
    a secret, we'll see you in court.  When they get to court the
    free software author tells the judge a) I'm very sorry, I've made
    a good faith effort to make sure this doesn't happen *and* am
    willing to remove the code in question, but they won't tell me
    what I'm infringing.  At this point the judge will laugh at
    the accusing company and accuse them of not acting in good faith.

Either way, there is no problem with the open source method.
In both cases, the person who caused the infringing code to
be added will be publically razzed and will be made an example of
so that others don't do the same thing.

I'd also like to correct a misconception you seem to have here.
For some reason you seem to think that a piece of code can easily
be removed from one project and dropped wholesale into another
project.  While I won't say this can never happen, I think you
seriously overestimate the chances of it happening.  Real projects
are complex and it's difficult to move things from one place
to another, even with everything people have tried to do with
code reuse.  I know this from years of real-world experience
coding (and how about your background?).

In addition, although I can't find the reference right now,
people from IBM have been asked about the possiblity of AIX
code ending up in Linux before this on the kernel mailing list.
Their response, from what I remember, was that most of the time,
it would be extremely hard for that to happen because the kernel
developers would likely pick the code apart and hate it.  If
anyone can find that reference, I'd appreciate it.

Finally, since all you seem to be quoting is SCO, how about
reading some other opinions like these:

http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/sco-statement.html
http://www.airs.com/ian/essays/sco/sco.html
http://www.opensource.org/sco-vs-ibm.html (I'd give this one less
weight, but it's still interesting reading)

Cheers,
Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace at wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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  This would be a very good time to hang out with the Open Source
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