[PD-ot] Re: Using Copyright

[Marc Lavallée]

We're still talking about the GPL.
Hans, this message is also a reply to your two previous messages on pd-dev.

Le 5 Janvier 2006 18:26, Chris McCormick a écrit :
> I am not a lawyer, but I take this to mean that you must provide
> the source code to anyone you distribute it to. 

Yes.

But at this point, it would be important to define a few things. 

- A company is a legal entity, like a person.
- When working as an employee, you have no copyrights on your work.
- Copying is the act of making a copy of something available.
- Distributing is the act of making something available to others.
- Downloading is the act of making a copy of something distributed by 
someone else. 
- When participating in exchange networks (like P2P) you are both copying 
and distributing your copies.

A good example of this is in the Canadian law; we are allowed to copy 
anything but we are not allowed to distribute copyrighted works (unless it 
is specified in their licenses). So I can legally download tons of 
proprietary works and never get busted unless I redistribute them. 

> Hence, if you only 
> distribute your modifications to people inside your company, you only
> need to give the source code of those modifications to those same people
> inside your company.

Not necessarily, because the company owns the modifications.
Modifications are first creating a new custom software for private use.

If you work for yourself, the modifications are yours (unless you give your 
rights to a client). If you work for a company, the modifications belongs 
to the company, unless you negociate an arrangement. Distributing happens 
when you release the software outside of the company, so inside the company 
you don't have to give the source code to your colleagues (or anyone else), 
unless your boss ask you to.

From http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html#PrivateSoftware :

"Private software

    Private or custom software is software developed for one user (typically 
an organization or company). That user keeps it and uses it, and does not 
release it to the public either as source code or as binaries.

    A private program is free software in a trivial sense if its unique user 
has full rights to it. However, in a deeper sense, it does not really make 
sense to pose the question of whether such a program is free software or 
not.

    In general we do not believe it is wrong to develop a program and not 
release it. There are occasions when a program is so useful that 
withholding it from release is treating humanity badly. However, most 
programs are not that marvelous, and withholding them is not particularly 
harmful. Thus, there is no conflict between the development of private or 
custom software and the principles of the free software movement.

    Nearly all employment for programmers is in development of custom 
software; therefore most programming jobs are, or could be, done in a way 
compatible with the free software movement.
"

--
Marc