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Date:      Thu, 08 Jan 2004 21:39:07 -0700 (MST)
From:      "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        underway@comcast.net
Cc:        freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Where is FreeBSD going?
Message-ID:  <20040108.213907.112623273.imp@bsdimp.com>
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>

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In message: <9td69t98g4.69t@mail.comcast.net>
            underway@comcast.net (Gary W. Swearingen) writes:
: "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com> writes:
: 
: > Ryan Sommers <ryans@gamersimpact.com> 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



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