Subj : Re: Copyright Issues?
To   : comp.programming
From : Gerry Quinn
Date : Sun Jul 17 2005 01:45 pm

In article <42d9c3e0$0$18746$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-
01.iinet.net.au>, vanluynm@NOSPAM.iinet.net.au says...
> Where do programmers go to find out about free software copyright law?
> 
> I asked this guy if I could make significant alterations to some software
> that he distributes FOC, and then to redistribute my version, with
> appropriate acknowledgments, also FOC. He said okay but wanted to see a copy
> for approval beforehand. I spent a lot of time finishing the code, and then
> sent it off for final approval. Deathly silence...
> 
> My questions are:- 1) How much or how little work do I have to do to code
> before its considered a unique, independently owned work. 2) What can I do
> if the guy decides to start selling or distributing my un-released, code
> which was marked copyright & 'free for any purpose, both commercial and non
> commercial'.
> 
> Thanks for any helpful advice or appropriate direction that may be provided.

There is no free software copyright law.  There is just software 
copyright law, which allows copyright holders to distribute software 
under a wide variety of licensing schemes. The same law applies 
irrespective of the price.

Read the license.  Unless that is forged or contains illegal terms 
(unlikely), it basically defines what you are allowed do with any piece 
of software.  

If the license is unclear about matters of concern, find out what the 
law says about them.

If the law is unclear, don't expect easy answers.  (Although do be 
aware that sometimes people claim the law is unclear when it is not.)

Perhaps you can claim that you were merely showing him, in confidence, 
a pro forma version that might be released at some future date.  What 
does your mutual correspondence indicate?  

If the above is not the case and your license does apply, I assume from 
what you've said that you have granted him permission to distribute 
your code in whatever form he wants along with his own, while you may 
not have a right to distribute your own modified version, as it is 
based on his.  Probably not what you intended, but you wrote it. 

Whether you have a right to distribute your modified version in certain 
circumstances (has he confirmed your copyright in a derivative work by 
using it?) just might be one of the few things that are unclear in 
copyright law - I don't know!

Anyway if he does this, it is up to you to decide what moral or other 
legal leverage you can exert.  

- Gerry Quinn

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