Copyleft/guide Changeset - 2ce793aa0513

Changeset - 2ce793aa0513

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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 9 years ago 2014-11-10 21:46:50
bkuhn@ebb.org

Integrate text describing copyright holders.

The enforcement section now has an integrated paragraph describing how
enforcement relates to copyright, and refers back to a related section
much earlier in the tutorial.

2 files changed with 19 insertions and 19 deletions:

compliance-guide.tex

gpl-lgpl.tex

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compliance-guide.tex

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 \chapter{Background}
 % FIXME-URGENT: integrate and correct
 Copyright law grants exclusive rights to authors. The ``preclusive'' use of
 copyleft to protect users’ rights still leaves the authors, as copyright
 holders, or their agents in the sole position of enforcers or protectors of
 their users’ rights. Actions for copyright infringement are the ultimate
 legal mechanism for enforcement, and copyright law allows only a copyright
 holder or her agent to bring an action for infringement. There also exist
 community efforts at compliance that help copyright holders in enforcement of
 their rights, but only the copyright holders or their legal representatives
 can actually initiate enforcement proceedings in the legal system.
 %FIXME-URGENT: END
 Early GPL enforcement efforts began soon after the GPL was written by
 Copyright law grants exclusive rights to authors.  Authors who chose copyleft
 seek to protect the freedom of users and developers to copy, share, modify
 and redistribute the software.  However, copyleft is ultimately implemented
 through copyright, and the GPL is primarily and by default a copyright
 license.  (See \S~\ref{explaining-copyright} for more about the interaction
 between copyright and copyleft.)  Copyright law grants an unnatural exclusive
 control to copyright holders regarding copyright-controlled permissions
 related to the work.  Therefore, copyright holders (or their agents) are the
 ultimately the sole authorities to enforce copyleft and protect the rights of
 users.  Actions for copyright infringement are the ultimate legal mechanism
 for enforcement.  Therefore, copyright holders, or collaborative groups of
 copyright holders, have historically been the actors in GPL enforcement.
 The earliest of these efforts began soon after the GPL was written by
 Richard M.~Stallman (RMS) in 1989, and consisted of informal community efforts,
 often in public Usenet discussions.\footnote{One example is the public
   outcry over NeXT's attempt to make the Objective-C front-end to GCC

gpl-lgpl.tex

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 software licensing mechanisms.  Thus, first, consider carefully why
 proprietary software exists in the first place.
 % FIXME-URGENT: integrate
 The primary legal regime that applies to software is copyright law. % FIXME-URGENT: END
 Proprietary software exists at all only because it is governed by copyright
 law.\footnote{This statement is admittedly an oversimplification. Patents and
 \label{explaining-copyright}
 The primary legal regime that applies to software is copyright law.
 Proprietary software exists at all only because copyright law governs
 software.\footnote{This statement is admittedly an oversimplification. Patents and
   trade secrets can cover software and make it effectively non-Free, and one
   can contract away their rights and freedoms regarding software, or source
   code can be practically obscured in binary-only distribution without

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