on Wed, Dec 14, 2005 at 02:53:07PM -0600, Charles Duffy (cduffy@xxxxxxxxxxx)
wrote:
> Sean Dague wrote:
> >In the US everything caries implicit copyright. To ensure that something
> >remains open source software, it needs to carry a license statement in that
> >file. An external file referencing headers saying "Those files are under
> >this license" isn't necessarily adequate.
>
> I'm not a lawyer, and to the extent that I've had formal legal training
> it focused on UCITA rather than intellectual property law, but I'm quite
> certain that the below is correct:
>
> The default case for a copyrighted work is that no license exists at
> all, and thus all the actions regulated by copyright are prohibited
> unless permission to take such actions is otherwise explicitly granted.
> Granting a license to make use of a work otherwise does *not* require
> that the license itself be referred to within the work -- the license
> grant could be in an *entirely separate contract* negotiated between the
> copyright holder and the licensee with no connection (in terms of being
> packaged together) whatsoever.
>
> Now, the copyright statement -- yes, you want that to be part of the
> same document. As for the license, however, I'm quite certain that it
> does not need to be the same document.
<IANAL>
Neither a license nor a copyright statement are _necessary_. Current
Berne Convention laws grant copyright by default. Copyright,
"circle-C", and phonogram / "circle-P" notations were obsoleted by the
1976 revision to US copyright law. 17 USC 102.
As a courtesey and convenience to those who want to identify a copyright
holder in future -- remember that your works will be under copyright 70
years after you are dead in most cases -- noting the original holder may
be somewhat helpful.
Online copyright discussions are filled with posts from people trying to
track down owners of old and obscure works, no small issue.
I'd only hope Xen has this problem ;-)
</IANAL>
Cheers.
--
Karsten M. Self <karsten@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
XenSource, Inc.
2300 Geng Road #250 +1 650.798.5900 x259
Palo Alto, CA 94303 +1 650.493.1579 fax
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