From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 8 20:39:21 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 231FA16A4CE; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 20:39:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from harmony.village.org (rover.bsdimp.com [204.144.255.66]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1669143D48; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 20:39:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (warner@rover2.village.org [10.0.0.1]) by harmony.village.org (8.12.10/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i094dFET091557; Thu, 8 Jan 2004 21:39:15 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2004 21:39:07 -0700 (MST) Message-Id: <20040108.213907.112623273.imp@bsdimp.com> To: underway@comcast.net From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: <9td69t98g4.69t@mail.comcast.net> References: <1073533525.650.59.camel@localhost> <20040108.105920.09775084.imp@bsdimp.com> <9td69t98g4.69t@mail.comcast.net> X-Mailer: Mew version 3.3 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2004 04:39:21 -0000 In message: <9td69t98g4.69t@mail.comcast.net> underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) writes: : "M. Warner Losh" writes: : : > Ryan Sommers writes: : > : Something like this might also jeopardize the : > : project's "not for profit" status. : > : > The project is not a legally incorporated entity at this time, and : > never has been in the past. : : And yet the "Legal" page carries a claim of copyright for "The FreeBSD : Project" It is a psudonymous work by The FreeBSD Project. : and the "Copyright" page has that plus a similar claim for : "FreeBSD, Inc." (For 2004, even.) That should be changed. : I've not seen a US statute about : false copyright claims, but I think it would be less risky to say "all : intellectual property is owned by its owners", in the manner of some : trademark statements. No, the above is perfectly legal under US and International Copyright law. : The "Legal" page could tell about using CVS to : determine who owns what so they can be tracked down and asked if the : copyright page is correct about what license they've got it under. :) That's likely overkill, but might not be a bad idea. : Whether the project is "for profit" depends upon the definition, if : the project is claiming copyright ownership, because gains of : intellectual property is considered (by US copyright law, at least) to : be a financial gain. But lots of organizations, formal and informal, : have financial gains without problems with being considered "for : profit", so if someone sees "for profit" problems, they should be : specific about what the problems might be. For profit or not is irrelvant, given that there's no legally incorporated entity for the project. Warner