[TriLUG] Re: Copyright protection

[Gnu Man]

Your scenario sounds logical, and I appreciate the effort. 

I apologize to the list for using any "FUD-like" comments, for that was
not my intention.

It seemed like little attention was being paid to the actual arguments,
and that people were not looking at the root of the potential problem.  

I also agree that the closed source model could be riddled with stolen
code, and no one outside the company would ever know.  The Open Source
model is valid and will thrive and survive.  

I was hoping to find some documentation that would not hold the users or
developers responsible for code that they did not know was obtained
illegally.

Unfortunately, I don't believe such a document exists, and as such these
disputes must be settled in a court of law :(

 




On Wed, 2003-08-06 at 01:17, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> 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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>   threat. -- Bruce Sterling
> 
>